Followers

When a film decides to wrong-foot the audience with pretty large twists and turns, as this does, things could either become very good or very bad. It's a risk I applaud the makers for.

To begin with, the characters are pretty obnoxious, but as events spiral, we are encouraged to feel sorry for them, and see that their lives lived on vlogs are merely self-promoting and not really doing anyone any harm. Then things go beyond that. Then things go beyond *that.* Do events become ridiculous? Oh yes.

For my money, the first third of the film is okay - we get past the hopelessly-in-love perfect-couple and into an intriguing premise. The second act is where everything is turned on its head and things get very creepy and entertaining. The third act is where another layer is added - but unfortunately this final twist is badly (and hurriedly) executed. However, it does go some way to debunking the mushiness of the opening sequences via some home truths from the character of Brooke (Amanda Delaney), and for that it earns an extra point.

A mixed bag then, but commendable nonetheless, despite a tepid finale. My score is 7 out of 10.

It's hard to believe how atrociously this film derails in the last section, being up to that point actually quite entertaining. First we follow two social-media stars who have a seemingly perfect relationship and are going camping for their first anniversary. We see all this through the vlogs they film of themselves. Then we are shown another set of 'found-footage' clips by a couple of documentarians who want to prove the dangers of exposing private details online. They choose the mentioned couple as the target of their project and start following them.

I won't spoil anything, but some of the things that happen halfway in the film are creepy and mysterious, so it interests the viewer to see how it all unfolds in the end. It turns out there is no scary reveal or resolution. What happens is completely stupid and random, not to mention horribly executed. It surely is unexpected, but it's terrible. For most of the film the acting is impressive and the characters feel real, until this last part. It almost feels like they're mocking the audience, getting increasingly ridiculous toward the end. They deliver a reflective message regarding social media in the final shot but even the shot itself is so ludicrous it can't be taken seriously. A waste of what could have been a cool flick.

AKA Followed. Mate of mine lent me this on DVD, promising a "great" movie. Well, we obviously have different ideas as to the definition of that word. An annoyingly perfect Ken & Barbie social media couple, who film their every move - hence this is a found footage movie (yawn)- go camping in the woods. Not surprisingly this predictably turns out to be a bad idea. It does then turn into a found footage within a found footage movie, some credit for that. Sadly this film is incredibly slow & boring, despite a fairly short running time. The characters have no depth, they all just got on my nerves, and the end descends into something ridiculously bad. And if it's gore that you are after forget it.

Found footage movie- yes, another one. Just in case we were running low I guess. Peopled with incredibly annoying characters- I'm guessing deliberately so, no-one could hit that high a strike rate by accident.

Not entirely predictable- I'll give it that. Bit of a twist towards the end. But ultimately just more people running through the woods, shouting "run!". And you really have to admire the tenacity with which these people stick to their cameras and keep filming. If I was being chased by a knife wielding maniac I'm pretty sure the camera would be one of the first things to go.

Not the worst of its kind, but a fair way from the best. To be fair, I did make it to the end- can't always say that....

This is a found footage story about a high-maintenance couple of blog stars who are popular enough to have stalkers and are thus in trouble when they go camping. The acting ain't all that and one isn't even frightened a whole lot but some of the scenes brought a smile to my lips. Point in case is the final scene which did bring some great dread until the dialog blew it, but that, too, was amusing for a minute.