Followed

This isn't the worst found-footage horror you'll see, although it's also very far from the best. It's a jumble of half-baked ideas borrowed from other, better movies, overlong and not well acted, though more experienced actors still could not have pulled off this crappy material. But its shortcomings wouldn't seem so stark if you went in blind...as opposed to having your expectations raised for something even halfway decent by the majority of early "user comments" here that are all clearly by crew members, their friends and family. (I mean, click on their handles--"mysteriously," almost none of them have ever commented about another movie before.) Reading those kinds of 10-star claims and then watching something this lame and amateurish turns an ordinary bad movie into an intensely dislikable one, since you feel like you've been duped. Filmmakers: Show a little spine. Don't get all your pals to post obviously fake "reviews" on IMBD and other forums. It will backfire, in that the people you lure in as a result are not only going to hate your movie, they're going to hold it against you in your future efforts.

About a ghost hunting vlogger offered a $250,000 sponsorship in exchange for a 3-night broadcast from a notoriously haunted hotel. Based on an actual hotel and events that transpired there. Ok, the cover (I got) has a devil, and a bound and gagged woman on the cover, neither of which appear in the movie. Oh, all sorts of strange things happen in this hotel, the crew loses its marbles, and ZERO of it is explained. It even has an ending that makes absolutely no sense. Acting gets REAL sketchy when they are tasked with being emotional. These filmmakers directly steal scenes and audio cues from Paranormal Activity. I really liked the idea of the "elevator game," and I am a sucker for both the paranormal and found footage. All that said, 4 stars for me.

The movie does a great job of blasting the hell out of influencer culture and the toxicity that surrounds it. The lead character is impossible to like, which is the point, but really I just didn't care enough about anyone else. The entire thing could have been carried by the main character alone and you'd still end up with the same movie. It definitely has a good scare or three - his descent into a dark hotel basement is great - , but it's also unnecessarily convoluted, and the twist is pretty obvious. Even so, it's still a pretty well made, solid entry in its genre.

Recommended viewing. There are not many decent ff movies anymore, let alone good ones, and this qualifies as decent. If they had cast Mike better and changed up the basement scene at the end, it could have been much better. Effects are decent and a bit overused imo. Has some genuinely creepy scenes. Not bad. Not great.

Overall I really enjoyed the locations they used. I'm a SoCal boy so I always have a biased on la movies with the history you can actually look up. The lead in this film was annoying but he was playing the typical YouTuber who wants fame. Ultimately the fate of the cast is in the air and we don't really get an explainer at the end. Nonetheless, I was in the zone looking for any little spooky stuff hidden in the film. Solid popcorn film. Not going to rewatch tho