Runtime: 1 hour 35 minutes
Plot Summary – Overview
The film starts with a triggering sequence shot on a mobile phone. A teenage girl (Ronja Hauge Schierup) hangs herself on a live-streamed camera.
Then the action jumps to Chiara King.
Clarity. Chiara King is a real person, a real, actual online Influencer. She plays the fictional Chiara King, an on-screen influencer.
Bubbly Brit, Chiara, chasing yet more online ratings and a bigger slice of audience/viewer ‘traction’ or revenue, sets off on a travelogue to wonderful, historic Copenhagen to shoot some ‘fun’ smartphone content/promos for her million-plus followers; her goal is to get a magic 10 million adoring adherents… Eating at fancy restaurants, flouncing around posh shops, wearing Christian Dior frocks, staying in the very best rooms, in the very best hotels, darling … Just your usual Influencer Modus Operandi/BS for Chiara.
Chiara is being shadowed by a Dutch documentary film crew (for some sort of ‘warts’n’all’ behind the scenes Influencer scoops) AND (you’d never have guessed) a psychotic stalker.
The stalker (handle: ‘king-slayer’) apparently lurks somewhere in the background, in all of Chiara’s locations and photo opportunities. He posts DM (Direct Messages) to Chiara’s Social Media Platform. Spoiler Alert … He’s definitely no fan of Chiara’s frothy, fun-loving oeuvre.
Chiara is a tough cookie, though, and has been trolled before (in real life). But the chillingly blunt intent of these messages, and being in such close, physical proximity to the stalker in unfamiliar, public locations (revealed when she looks through the day’s film rushes), somehow manage to get under Chiara’s thick skin.
That’s the set up, but, as you’d expect from a modern, meta textual horror, there are some seismic plot shifts.
WATCH THE TRAILER FOR “THE INFLUENCER PROJECT” BELOW
OUR REVIEW
Chiara’s daily viewings are boosted because her audience, according to her typically craven, ratings obsessed agent (Jazmine Summer), ‘love to see Chiara scared.’ Using the stalker to push ratings, Chiara pivots into a ‘supernatural reporter’ visiting grimy locations at night. Locations where various murders have taken place.
The crew film at allegedly haunted sites, all to push Chiara’s viewership up to the mythic 10 million mark, (‘up with the Kardashians’) whilst Chiara herself is getting further rattled by the genuinely unhinged stalker at her heels, escalating his graphic and violent private messaging campaign.
Mike Nybroe’s directorial debut has some proper jump scares, to affirm he knows his horror staples and genres and can deploy them when necessary. For instance, Nybroe builds mounting tension and jarring suspense into the airport footage scenes brilliantly.
With the addition of Blair Witch production duo Eduardo Sanchez and Gregg Hale to add a Dogme slant to proceedings, The Influencer Project updates the genre to split screens in Copenhagen.
Smartphones, security cameras, raw rushes and raw film stock are all frequently used to convey menace and add to the exposed vulnerability in the life of an Influencer, visible 24/7 through CCTV and other media in the public domain. Add to that a theme explored in Blair Witch, a phenomenon now known as the ‘unreliably flaky film crew scenario.’
We see the Dutch film crew bicker and fall out, some trying to protect Chiara and keep her safe (a semi explored relationship nearly ensues), as the director (played by Nybroe himself) becomes increasingly egomaniacal, obsessively driven and intemperate, insisting the ‘show must go on’ despite his crew virtually deserting him at the 11th hour.
The use of on-screen smartphone-style visual pop ups and live messaging puts you directly in the world of an Influencer. An Influencer might average around 16 hours a day on their phone.
Chiara King clearly draws from her lived experience for the role (role? It’s her, slightly re imagined) and does a great job conveying the heady rush of the jet setter Influencer lifestyle, with its many vagaries and pitfalls.
Para Social Relationships are mentioned several times, as well as ‘organised harassment’ (when Chiara gets her followers to pile on an unsuspecting suspect and dox him).
FINAL WORD
In many ways, The Influencer Project is a genuine attempt to document the evolving world of the Influencer. Chiara talks about how she always must be ‘on,’ that is, on camera, on film, live, permanently upbeat and cheerful and engaged. Often when you just don’t feel that way.
She must reflect on turning virtually her whole life into public property, freely available in the Public Domain, and that old ‘Deal with the Devil’ when you get all the trappings of success, but at what cost?
Initially, Chiara King fills the screen with her hyper social public ‘persona,’ derived from her online Influencer career. She’s loud, opinionated and quite possibly very annoying, but also charming. As the plot progresses, Chiara’s ‘front,’ or shield, seems to drop off and slip away. We see uncertainty. Her moral compass shifts. It’s a very assured acting debut from a talented and watchable young actress.
A thought provoking, jump scare infested, twisted little debut movie. Well worth a watch from director Mike Nybroe.
An outstanding first feature debut from Chiara King as Chiara King.
Although the initial suicide scene was, I feel, too strongly stated as the peg for a tale of revenge. Examining the motivations behind these acts is another film entirely. The sound design is worthy of a listen on its own. Deft editing and crystal-clear, sharp clarity to the visual textures, adding to a watchable and very smart, standout movie.
Chiara King also co produced The Influencer Project (along with Ahmet Zappa).
Meta-textual multitasking really IS the future.
“THE INFLUENCER PROJECT” screens exclusively in UK and Irish Cinemas starting October 16th before coming to DVD, Blu-ray and all major Digital Platforms 30th November.