FOLLOWED: A Lot Of What We’ve Seen Before, With Some Decent Scares

I’m not a big fan of the “found footage” films and unfortunately, the genre still hasn’t died. Followed, with its contrived shaky ghosts and shoddy script, is the millennial’s answer to The Shining and 1408, without the compelling stories. It does deliver a few tense spooky spooks though.

Generation YouTube

Mike (Matthew Solomon), aka “Drop The Mike”, is a Los Angeles based vlogger, who specializes in showing his audience creepy places and things. He already has enough followers to draw the eye of a big sponsor, but they want him to get to 50K followers first, by the end of Halloween night. If he can pull it off, he gets $250,000.  With a wife at home who works double shifts as a nurse to help support them, and himself being narcissistic and dead set on getting famous, this is an offer he can’t refuse.

To draw in more followers, he sets up a three day weekend over Halloween at the Hotel Lennox, infamous for its hauntings, suicides and housing of killers. The most recent of “happenings” is the disappearance of a young woman, Meghan Kim (Sarah Chang), who goes missing while playing a Korean “urban legend” elevator game there.

Convinced that all ghost sightings are hoaxes, Mike manipulates and finagles his small crew, Chris (Tim Drier) his DP, Nic (Caitlin Grace), his lugubrious editor and Danni (Sam Valentine), a sound girl and third camera, into aiding him on his quest for money and followers.

The Eerie Hotel

From the beginning, it’s relatively slow moving. The focus is mostly on the “mystery person” uploading new and watching old “Drop The Mike” videos. There isn’t any real action until almost thirty minutes in. One of the coolest shots of the film involves a drone they test out on the roof of the hotel. They capture some pretty awesome, albeit quick, shots of downtown Los Angeles with it. Mike sets his crew up on the 14th floor, one room for the editor and the other, the exact room a notorious serial killer chopped up his victims bodies. They get their cameras and other equipment set up to hopefully capture some ghost action.

As they start to explore the place, without the permission of the management, Mike feels a sense of deja vu in certain areas. Could he be connected somehow to this place? When they go to explore the basement, they find an area chained off. They use the drone to explore some of the locked room but “something” knocks the drone down. That’s when they meet a security guard (Christopher Ross Martin), who just happens to be a fan of Mike’s vlog, and agrees to give them a key to the no access room. There are many of these “just happens to be” coincidences throughout the film that give the characters easy passes over obstacles.

The film then begins to layer on more and more ghostly occurrences and though they too are done in ways already seen, many do very well putting the viewer at a sense of unease. Not only can the ghosts interact with 3D objects, but they can kill as well. In reference to The Shining, there is an atmosphere that affects people’s minds, controlling some and making others feel sick. Some of the guests are influenced to jump out the windows, a la 1408.

With loads of strange occurrences happening around them, i.e. literal ghost sightings caught on camera; Mike having an experience with Meghan Kim’s actual ghost on the elevator, and multiple witnessed suicides while they are there, Mike still blows them off as something explainable and believes he must stay. The problem is, there never is really any good reason for him to stay.

The script lays down his wife’s pregnancy surprise as one reason, but, I don’t know, maybe get a job that pays instead of staying for one where people are dying and/or dead? Even as Mike continues to lose crew and his own mind, he still stays. Even after his wife has a bad dream and begs him to leave, HE STILL STAYS, for no greatly compelling reason.

Script, Script, Script

Yet again, I find myself reviewing a film that doesn’t have a great script. As a horror, this isn’t terrible for a cheap movie night. If you want something with some fun scares that isn’t all that complex you’ll enjoy Followed. Gen Y and Z’ers also may enjoy the very relevant to their culture YouTube approach to this film. The flourishment of people becoming celebrities via random, silly vlogs continues to surge, much to my surprise. It seems like anyone, with a bit of personality and an inane idea can become a star nowadays.

However, even my older Gen Z daughters, who are obsessed with certain YouTubers, still found the film slow and a bit mundane. Writer Todd Klick attempts to put a clever spin on the main character, linking him to the hotel, but the twist ultimately fizzles. There’s no redemption for any of the characters and too many plot points are driven by easy luck and coincidences. Mike learns his lesson far too late and the end story for the vlog is completely unexplained. The film simply didn’t deliver the “Woah” effect that I think the filmmakers intended.

Followed: Conclusion

Overall, Followed is definitely not the worst horror, nor found footage film I’ve seen. It has a lot of great tension and some of the ghost scenes are genuinely creepy. The ghost special effects, though already done before, are decent and there are several cool camera shots.

However, the story just doesn’t line up. If it had been created with a carefully crafted, intricate mystery, leaving better clues throughout, it would have been much more enjoyable and more engaging. The acting is pretty good, but the actors have no real chemistry with each other. This and the story problems leave the film vacuous which in turn makes the audience not care what happens to the characters. It seems like the filmmakers had a good idea, but it never got translated through the script.

Instead, as per usual these days, most of the energy was spent on the special effects and scares than an intriguing, enigmatic story. Had they just taken the time to cut and craft Mike’s ties to the hotel history in an inventive, imaginary way it actually could’ve been this generation’s The Shining.

In any case, there are probably many who are going to enjoy this film. Moviegoers have gotten too used to “meh” and “not that great”. Filmmakers, please spend a great deal more time with your script before shooting. Even after you’ve done a bunch of editing and drafts, keep going. The real gem ideas are usually found long after the first several drafts are finished. Also, please care about what you write. Don’t create something for the fame, money or follows. Whether it’s comedy, drama or horror, an artist’s heart should always shine through in the finished product. Wouldn’t you rather leave your mark on the world with something really great?

What are your thoughts on the handheld footage technique? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!

Followed is coming to theaters in 2019. For all international release dates, see here.