Casey Chong presents seven movies about influencer culture that are worth adding to your watchlist…
Influencer culture, encompassing social media influencers and vloggers, is frequently being portrayed in a bad light. This is particularly true with the curated, too-good-to-be-true content posted on social media for followers and anyone who comes across the post while scrolling. This, in turn, creates an unrealistic expectation vs. reality angle between online personas and real-world outcomes. And this is just one of the many negative perceptions towards influencers, even though there are positive sides that prioritize genuine connections and add societal value through raising awareness for good causes.
Given today’s digital world, where social media has become an integral part of our lives, it’s no wonder movies revolving around influencers have found their way into the reel world over the past few years. Various filmmakers use the theme of influencers as a launch pad to explore them by incorporating elements of social commentary, horror, drama and/or thriller. Here are the seven best movies about influencers that we have curated for your viewing consumption…
Deadstream (2022)
What if an Evil Dead-like movie is executed in a found footage format? Welcome to Deadstream, which marks the promising directorial debut of wife-and-husband duo Vanessa Winter and Joseph Winter. The movie satirizes the influencer culture about how far an internet personality, in this case, a disgraced live-streamer and influencer Shawn Ruddy (Joseph Winter himself, clearly having a field day playing the role), is trying to stage a comeback. And that comeback in question? Spending a night while livestreaming himself in the haunted house called the Death Manor.
The movie benefits from a lean 88-minute runtime, and kudos to the Winters’ effective direction for deliberately building up their story as we follow Shawn in taking us on a tour inside the house. Here, the Winters incorporate relevant visual aesthetics commonly associated with vlogging and livestreaming – social media interface, voiceover narration, POV shots and viewers’ real-time comments displayed on a chat box to mimic you-are-there authenticity. Once the horror begins, the Winters ratchet up the tension by elevating the early Sam Raimi-like gonzo horror comedy tropes. It’s darkly funny and macabre while the Winters embrace the use of practical and makeup effects for all things gore and violence.
Mainstream (2020)
Gia Coppola’s sophomore feature after 2013’s Palo Alto sees the director and co-writer explore the dark side of losing oneself after gaining internet fame. At the beginning of the movie, Link (Andrew Garfield) seems like a random nobody. He’s working in a mall dressed up in a costumed mascot, but his eccentricity somehow attracts the attention of Frankie (Maya Hawke), an aspiring filmmaker earning minimum wages as a bartender. After catching Link rambling about an art piece with his inspired monologue to the curious passers-by, she takes the opportunity to record it and uploads it to her YouTube channel.
The video becomes an overnight sensation. It doesn’t take long before Link and Frankie achieve stardom, while the latter subsequently convinces her friend, Jake (Nat Wolff), to join them as a writer. Their team-up resulted in a viral success of mocking and satirizing the social media influencers. Coppola does a good job setting up her rags-to-riches story of how the growing popularity can turn someone genuine like Link into a superficial public figure. And part of what makes Mainstream work lies in Garfield’s unhinged performance, who let his fame get into his head.
Shook (2021)
It’s a life-or-death game of survival in Shook, and the person who is forced to endure the ordeal? A makeup influencer named Mia (Daisye Tutor), who helps her sister Nicole (Emily Goss) dog-sit Chico at her family home. We see her spending time glued to her smartphone like the only companion she can’t live without.
Writer-director Jennifer Harrington depicts Mia as a narcissist who cares more about updating her social media than people around her, like barely grieving over a fellow beauty influencer who got murdered earlier in the movie. She may have been a self-centered protagonist, and yet, it’s hard not to sympathize with everything she’s been through over the course of a single night. This is especially true with her receiving sinister calls and texts, suggesting someone crazy is out to get her.
And here is where it gets interesting: Harrington toys around with our expectations to determine whether the endless threat against Mia is for real or just an elaborate hoax to teach her a lesson. Either way, it’s mean and tense with plenty of effective jump scares, while kudos go to Harrington’s darkly playful screenplay for navigating the movie’s twists and turns throughout a tight 88-minute runtime.
Sweat (2020)
Writer-director Magnus von Horn delves into the life of Sylwia Zając (Magdalena Koleśnik), who is a famous fitness influencer. Right from the onset, Von Horn captures the spirited energy of a scene where Sylwia is shouting enthusiastically and motivating participating fans during their get-together workout in a shopping mall. She’s living a dream of a successful influencer who has it all, including a whopping 600,000 followers and even gracing the cover of Women’s Health magazine.
But beneath all the glitz and glamour of an influencer, it’s all facade, as Sylwia’s life outside the camera when it’s off is pretty much mundane and exhausted. Von Horn does a good job establishing the stark contrast between Sylwia’s curated, vibrant Instagram-ready life to spread positivity to her fans and her underlying existential crisis. Of course, this movie wouldn’t have worked if weren’t for Magdalena Koleśnik’s empathetic performance as Sylwia, who is internally struggling between keeping up with a positive vibe that defines her image and expressing her true self.
Influencer (2022)
Here’s a crafty psychological thriller about the consequences of an influencer (Emily Tennant’s Madison) for trusting a seemingly harmless stranger (Cassandra Naud’s CW) while vacationing in Thailand. Director and co-writer Kurtis David Harder, best known for producing V/H/S/94, takes a deliberate approach to explore the initial friendship between Madison and CW as we see them enjoying each other’s company.
Once the movie reaches a turning point, Harder shifts his focus to CW living a life impersonating Madison, going as far as making her character fooling and manipulating everyone on social media. Influencer particularly benefits from Cassandra Naud’s sneaky performance as CW, while Harder deserves mention for highlighting the dark side of social media obsession, manipulation and identity theft. The movie made its rounds in several film festivals with multiple nominations and wins, and even got a sequel three years later with Cassandra Naud reprising her role as CW.
Superhost (2021)
Signs of desperation and frustration kick in when follower counts begin to suffer from a steep decline – one of the common downfalls associated with influencers, and in the case of Superhost, it happens to travel vloggers Claire (Sara Canning) and Teddy (Osric Chau). They regularly vlog lodgings under their Superhost video channel, but the fact that they are struggling with a lack of subscribers forces them to come up with viral content. And that is, renting a vacation house somewhere deep in the woods, where they deal with a superhost named Rebecca (Gracie Gillam).
The latter comes across as an eccentric individual who seems harmless at first, but beyond Rebecca’s annoying and overly cordial personality lies a sinister side of her. Writer-director Brandon Christensen embraces an effective mix of dark comedy and slasher horror tropes, complete with plenty of graphic violence and gore late in the movie once all hell breaks loose. Gracie Gillam stands out the most with her gleefully unhinged performance as Rebecca, bringing a much-needed mean-spirited campy fun to the movie.
Followed (2018)
The consequences of exploiting a tragedy for the sake of creating viral content and achieving view counts take a dark turn in Followed. Shot in a found-footage format, the movie follows a vlogger nicknamed DropTheMike (Matthew Solomon, nailing the role of an obnoxious protagonist), who desperately needs the $250,000 sponsorship offer if he manages to hit 50,000 new subscribers.
This leads to his daring decision to spend the Halloween weekend at the haunted Lennox Hotel with his small team. Director Antoine Le utilizes the otherwise done-to-death found-footage format effectively to generate enough dread-inducing tension within the creepy hotel interiors, reportedly shot at Hayward Manor Hotel and Hotel Normandie in Los Angeles – both of which are famous for their allegedly haunted premises.
What are your favourite influencer movies? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Casey Chong
