Movie Review: Followers

Number 8 on the Countdown to Halloween

Followers

Movie Review by Siobahn Harris

This is what I get. I was in a dollar store and found a random horror movie. What did I expect? The idea seemed so good, but they really dropped the ball! Today, I bring you, one of the biggest disappointments in the horror genre, Followers.

Breakdown:

A couple, Caleb (Justin Maina) and Brooke (Amanda Delaney) are both YouTube (or knock-off Youtube) sensations. Honestly, they both look amazing for these characters. It’s like they were plucked right out of a YouTube video. The two of them decide they are going camping for their anniversary. So we get to watch them head out on the road and set up camp at a secluded Florida campsite. However, when Brooke is filming a yoga video she is attacked by two men in masks. They bring her back to the campsite where Caleb is and suddenly the story takes a turn.

Now, from the eyes of the two masked men, we start the story over. We see how these two guys, Nick (Nishant Gogna) and Jake (Sean Michael Gloria) are filmmakers who are making a documentary. However, their documentary is a little controversial. They are showing how easy it is to utilize someone’s popular social media life to track them down. Because both Brooke and Caleb have such a huge following, they are easy targets. We follow them step by step as they follow Caleb and Brooke to their campsite.

After the two stories meet, things take a very different turn. Not only is one person on a different page than their partner, but the four of them might not be the only ones in the woods.

Thoughts:

Oh man. This started out so great! I loved following Caleb and Brooke. I loved seeing the ups, the downs, the drama that was on the horizon. But when we switched to Nick and Jake, it got boring. Not at first, but they took way too long to get the real story going! It felt like we were watching someone’s uncomfortable home movie, because nothing was happening, they were annoyed with each other, and they slowly made progress. The movie was an hour and twenty two minutes long, but they waited an hour to actually get to the action. Snore.

There is a twist to this story. But not a good one. That idea should have been burned. Not sure what they were thinking by adding in that twist because it was totally silly, unlikely, and made for too much going on. I’m going to say this as vague as possible because you all know I don’t do spoilers, but if you’ve seen this movie you should have a pretty good idea of what I’m talking about. If they trashed that twist all together and added in a character revealing a dark side or just have things get way out of hand, it would have been way better.

True Fear?

No. Had this story not utilized that twist, maybe. I was very excited for this movie when I watched the trailer and the idea of the possibilities gave me hope for true fear. Unfortunately, it was just a let down and rather boring.