Followers (2024) by James Rich

Director: James Rich

Year: 2024

Country: USA

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Slasher

Plot:

After surviving an encounter with a killer, a group of women trying to live their lives afterward gathers together at a remote house in the countryside to try to heal, but when they find a cult of psychos have invaded the house in retaliation for their actions, they must try to escape them.

Review:

This was a rather troubling and underwhelming effort with very little to like. The main aspect to be had here is the immensely fun second half when the actual invasion occurs at the house. While there are many issues surrounding everything else, the type of action featured here is quite fun as there are some decent attempts at stalking and chasing around the house before turning into the more barbaric pieces that take place with the captive group. This is all handled with a grim tone and some nice brutality in the interactions here as this has the kind of energy and tempo to make for an interesting time, being the only likable quality on display here.

There are a multitude of issues bringing this one down. One of the biggest drawbacks against it is the absolutely moronic main concept on display that's absurdly over-the-top and not in the slightest bit realistic for anything that goes on. The whole idea of the influencer culture mindset to take the incident and capitalize on their popularity in the aftermath of surviving everything is fine enough but just makes everyone so unlikable it's hard to imagine anyone being won over into the line of thinking that would generate a popular documentary on the experience making fur such a thorough slough that the first half might put people off before anything happens.

On top of that, the utterly non-intimidating or threatening group of psychos trying to carry everything off. The type of loser mentality that they try to preach as a form of empowerment is so haphazardly explained and introduced that it tries to make a grand statement on the nature of this type of figure but just comes off so overtly lazy that it's hard to feel anything from them. Combined with the flimsy masks, propensity for using guns during the invasion, and laughably unimposing physiques for trying to accomplish the physically intense material required, and these factors all manage to hold this one down the most.

Overview: */5

An underwhelming and generally bland genre effort, there’s not much to like with this one as the multiple issues here manage to hold this down quite significantly. Those who are interested in this type of genre fare will be the main ones who are into it as most others are going to be turned off by the flaws and should heed extreme caution with it.

Followers streams exclusively on Screambox on March 12.