Yours truly was born in the early 80s and grew up in the careless and largely anti-digital 90s. With only two blunt statements, I can illustrate that I probably wasn't part of the target audience for this film. Number one: until I looked it up, I had no idea what the title meant. Apparently, it stands for "fear of missing out" and describes a bizarre social media condition that we, nineties kids, didn't have to worry about. Number two: I honestly can't understand the phenomenon of "influencers". In my view - and I know I'm old - it's not a job, and they are the most useless people in the world. What makes anyone think he/she is important or interesting enough to share his/her thoughts and selfies with the world?
Anyway, there are nevertheless a few aspects with which "FOMO" attracted my attention. I'm a tremendous fan of old-fashioned 80s-styled horror/slasher movies, for starters, and I also have a profound fondness for movies made in my own beloved home country of Belgium (and, more particularly, in Flanders). So, when I found out "FOMO" is a combo of both, and that it revolves around dim-witted, self-centered, and disposable influencers brutally getting butchered in and around a remote cabin in the woods, I simply had to see it.
I can't quite figure out why "FOMO" has such a low rating (currently 3/10) around here. Sure, it isn't a masterpiece of cinema, but it's reasonably well-made, hugely entertaining, and - most importantly - it ticks all the mandatory boxes of a genuine slasher. There's the remote setting, a psycho with a cool mask (digital smiley-faces), nasty and blood-soaked kills (scalping, beheading, throat-slitting, bludgeoning, ...), and - as said before - clueless victims you don't really care if they live or die. Even the concept is good: the ten most popular influencers of the country are taken to a remote location, supposedly to partake in a big TV/Social Media contest. On the tour bus they are still lusciously vlogging and streaming, but at the cabin they promptly must hand over their mobile phones and the pleasant ambience rudely changes. During the "assignments", the group painfully learns they have been lured out by a deranged killer with an even bigger hatred for influencers than I do.
The set-up of "FOMO" is rather unusual. The film ends abruptly and unresolved, like many slashers do, but instead of a sequel there came four TV-episodes of approximately half an hour each. The episodes aren't mini-slasher movies, though. The tone and format change and suddenly it becomes a mix between torture-porn, crazed dysfunctional families, and sick mind-games. Personally, I like straightforward slashing a lot more, and the episodes feel quite redundant. They also haven't been added (yet?) on IMDb.
