The Influencer
2023 · 10m · USA
Directed by Lael Rogers
Tones: dark, darkly comic
A social media influencer describes her perfect day harvesting the eyes and minds of her followers to achieve immortality, as a group of young women compete for the apotheosis of cool girl status in a world where online worship becomes literal witchcraft.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Influencer harvests her followers' eyes and minds for immortality, shot partly on the actors' own phones. The actual-cellphone-footage gimmick is the only thing distinguishing this from the seventeen other 'social media is a cult' shorts I've seen.
Actors shooting partly on their own cell phones to render social-media-as-witchcraft is the formally correct insight, and Rogers is reaching for Daniel Goldhaber's Cam territory. The cult-of-cool premise is well-explored ground; the craft decision is where the interest lives.
Shooting partly on the actors' own cell phones to emulate social-media kinetic quality is the right craft commitment for body-horror-meets-witchcraft satire — the medium has to feel native or the critique reads as outside the room. 10 minutes; aesthetic discipline is the bet.
Reviews
Satirizes the battleground of competition as a group of young women seek to achieve the apotheosis of cool girl status, producing a smart and unworldly short film that is as genre-bending as it is disturbing.
Rogers has more than a social critique on her mind, and the theme of worship is taken to an incredible extreme as Rogers explores the true meaning of a cult following.
Festivals
- Fantasia International Film Festival 2023
- Fantastic Fest 2023
- Brooklyn Horror Film Festival 2023
- Beyond Fest 2023
- Overlook Film Festival 2023
- Seattle International Film Festival 2023
- New/Next Film Festival 2023