Director: Chris Marrs Piliero
Year: 2026
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Suspense/Thriller
Plot:
Trying to get by in life, a group of content creators hoping to get their material in front of others are suddenly inundated with a slew of deepfake videos designed to humiliate them as a means of showcasing how the technology has run amok, bringing them into increasingly dangerous situations.
Review:
Overall, this was an intriguing, if overall flawed, genre effort. The majority of this one revolves around the lives of these individuals, told in an interconnected, nonlinear approach that brings about several intriguing ideas, mostly revolving around this first collection of performers who get out of control after renting a remote house only for the night to turn into a tide of violence that no one is prepared to handle. The whole thing is awash in rapid-fire, witty banter from a group of hipsters looking to satisfy their desires to be seen and understood by others, so that everything that happens is a result of a night gone out of control and their inability to rationalize what's going on. This is where the majority of the fun exists, with the violent outbursts and chaotic situation gradually getting further out of control working best, despite being full of unlikable people doing things.
While we get some form of explanation for everything with the distribution of AI-generated deepfakes purposefully designed to split up the group, this comes together well enough that it tends to offset the second section, which is an absolute slog to get through, trying to deal with this utterly insipid loser of a human being simply going around providing deepfake videos of strangers to ruin their lives for utterly petty and unimportant reasons. Most of this is because it's trying to cram too many threads into its simple revenge storyline that it doesn't need to include, spending time on a cosplay outfitter or a random woman he meets at a store and ends up upsetting him such that he needs to create a deepfake of her so that he can pay off a debt to a criminal kingpin. Luckily, it picks up again in the last part, where everything turns into a gruesome, brutal bloodbath of unhinged action that's immensely fun, and creates enough to like that it is somewhat fun enough.
Overview: ****/5
A likable if immensely troubling genre effort, this one features quite a lot to like that it overcomes the fact that there are plenty of worthwhile factors to overcome the issues present here. Those with an interest in this style or approach, or who are curious about it, will have the most to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
Comments
Post a Comment