A Horror Movie Targeting the Ugliness of Influencer Culture – The Daily Beast

In what will come as a shock to no one, a good deal of what you see online isnt real. Thats especially true when it comes to social media influencers, who create idealizedand desirablepersonas on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, and then use their clout to hawk products for their own personal benefit. Theyre the 21st century equivalent of paid infomercial actors and hosts, and their blather is about as trustworthy as anything else you hear from a corporation thats trying to sell you the latest, greatest whatever thatll help you win friends and influence peoplenot to mention increase your follower count.

Writer/director Jennifer Harrington wades into these digital waters with Shook, a thriller thats heavy on censure and woefully light on scares. A Shudder exclusive premiering on the horror streaming platform on Feb. 18, its tale concerns Mia (Daisye Tutor), a young, pretty blonde influencer whose claim to fame are makeup videos for a cosmetics brand. The phoniness of Mias vocation is underscored by the films introductory scene, in which she and two other womenincluding beauty influencer of the year Genelle (Genelle Seldon)pose for the paparazzi, only for Harrington to cut to a master shot of this newsworthy event, which is really just a staged red carpet thats been constructed in an abandoned parking lot. This entire worlds phoniness is thus laid bare succinctly, and sharply.

Thats not the only pointed thing about Shooks opening; when her dog pees all over her swanky dress, Genelle rushes off to a nearby bathroom, where she winds up getting stabbed through the chin with her designer high heel shoe. Subsequent headlines indicate that this slaying is related to a spate of recent Southern California attacks by a killer that primarily preys on dogs, and in the aftermath of her colleagues demise, Mia takes to social media to proclaim, Im shook. Seriously. Given that everything about these individuals is performative bullshit, shook she most certainly is not. In fact, she barely gives it another thought, instead turning her attention to her own dilemma: having to watch her sister Nicoles (Emily Goss) dog Chico and, in the process, miss out on a big livestream with her boyfriend Santi (Octavius J. Johnson) and friends Lani (Nicola Posener) and Jade (Stephanie Simbari).

Mias predicament is hardly tragic, even if she treats it like her own personal Sophies Choice. Still, her circumstances do soon take a turn for the upsetting. When Chico goes missing, Mia begins searching her siblings home, which clues us into the fact that Nicole had been caring for their mother, who suffered from a made-up incurable brain disorder called Livingstons Disease, and who appears to have passed it on to Nicole. Mia, however, never visited her ailing mom because, per her navel-gazing profession, she only cares about herself. Some of this is spelled out by Mias conversations with Nicolewho can see Mia via a security camera installed in their mothers bedroomand the rest comes via Mias chats with Kellan (Grant Rosenmeyer), a neighbor who gets in touch with Mia first as a friend, and then as a sinister tormentor.

Shook slowly develops into a wannabe-nightmare in which Mia is harassed by unbelievable threats from Kellan, who snatches Chico and then promises to kill her friends (and the pooch) if she doesnt answer his questions and play his games. Its When a Stranger Calls (or Scream) reimagined for the age of texting, voicemails and social media apps, except that the films characters are so one-dimensional and thoroughly obnoxious that its impossible to care about their safety. Harrington visualizes Mias digital interactions by projecting her laptop screen on walls, and by depicting her text-thread friends whispering in her ear. Unfortunately, such devices are handled as clunkily as the rest of the storytelling, which moves the plot forward through leaden exposition, and which primarily envisions Mias friends as braying faces in extreme selfie close-ups.

Things are not what they seem, but if youre expecting the inevitable twists to be clever, have I got some miracle foundation and concealer to sell you. Given that the proceedings are populated by only a handful of characters, its not difficult to see the out-of-left-field turns on the horizon, although a lack of surprise is far from the films sole shortcoming. Shook takes place in the sort of sparsely furnished home that feels like a low-budget set, and Harringtons decision to shroud her action in darknesseven when Mia asks an Alexa-like smart speaker to turn on the lights, they barely illuminate anythingonly further contributes to the overarching chintzy atmosphere. At least the social media posts presented on screen look reasonably authentic, and consequently go some way toward conveying the way in which influencers (and everyday people) use phones and computers not only as their chief means of communication, but as the filter through which they process their every waking experience.

Things are not what they seem, but if youre expecting the inevitable twists to be clever, have I got some miracle foundation and concealer to sell you.

Shooks revelations further underscore the disingenuousness of influencerswhat they say, what they do, who they claim to beand, by extension, everything seen and heard on Instagram et al. Yet in a 2021 grappling with a tidal wave of democracy-undermining disinformation, such notions come off as dully obvious. The casts performances are uniformly bland, and Harringtons inability to bestow Mia or her cohorts with distinctive personalities turns them into mere vehicles for her materials familiar message. Worse, however, is that the cat-and-mouse game which eventually kicks into gear is clumsily staged, its helter-skelter rhythm doing much to neuter any menace or peril. Its also borderline illogical, hinging on incidents that make no sense regardless of the explanations provided by characters dialogue.

Why Shooka movie about pulling the curtain back on social media influencers narcissism and insincerityrevolves around dog murders is anyones guess, but such randomness is in keeping with the endeavors general sloppiness. Devoid of suspense and, at times, basic narrative cohesion, it simply tells audiences what they already knowan approach that doesnt leave one shook so much as bored.

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A Horror Movie Targeting the Ugliness of Influencer Culture - The Daily Beast

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero