Tag: Georgina Campbell

INFLUENCERS (2025)

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Written & Directed By: Kurtis David Harder 

Cinematography: David Schuurman 

Editor: Rob Grant 

Cast: Casandra Naud, Emily Tennent, Georgina Campbell, Veronica Long, Lisa Delamar, Jon Whitesell, Dylan Playfair, Liam James Collins, Nalani Wakita 

In Southern France, a young woman’s chilling fascination with murder and identity theft sends her life into a whirlwind of chaos.

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A sequel to the 2022 movie INFLUENCER, I will honestly say I didn’t see coming back for a round two.

At times, the film could easily be seen as a female version of THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY  only less tortured and more about the method less about the past or the characters history. Only lacking the depths or literary origins in history while being more modern.

As both involve main characters constantly having to change their identities and operate in foreign locals and are not above murder to get what they want.

This film is like HOSTEL 2, Where it’s more about the main characters methods and work. Rather than necessarily, adding too much to the game.  As we are still dealing with the main characters from the last film, but throw in a few new characters to complicate things a bit and also level up.

This at a heart is a socially conscious commentary slasher. Where we get the survivors of the last film, facing each other again by the end, in a knockout drag out fight, that feels like it releases all the tension that the film builds up in the first place. Which it seemed to be holding back from until this moment. 

This is a franchise that gets less intricate, but gets bigger with each addition. As this is a proper sequel offering an opening. That is a little bit random and shocking wondering how we got there in the film fits it all in piece by piece.

As we don’t even get the opening credits until 30 minutes into the film. As everything before, it is a kind of where are they now prologue of people from the previous film and how they are continuing their legacy. 

The sequel definitely raises the stakes, but doesn’t make it feel far-fetched or ridiculous.  As it is just as layered and diabolical as our slasher, though not a bit above some exploitative means. 

This is a smart thriller that dabbles in the tawdry, but plays like a chess match. a basic one that rises to the top and goes overboard in the last 15 minutes. 

Where it just ends up being fun where you root for the villain. as well as other characters. it’s kind of like the horror film SMILE, where the first one comes out and it’s in one style and then the sequel comes out, and raises the stakes, as well as the bar. but is just as good if not better than the first film, even though you kind of need the first film to fully understand the stakes in the characters and the situations in full. Then towards the end, just chooses to go off the wall, but it still feels within the realm a reality of the film.

Now, this is a film that Many could get behind it as its victims are usually influencers as a kind of DEATH WISH or FALLING DOWN for the next generation. Is the kind of dark vengeful which fulfillment.

Grade: B 

THE WATCHERS (2024)

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Written & Directed By: Ishana Shyamalan 

Based On the Novel By: A.M. Shine 

Cinematography: Eli Arenson 

Editor: Job Ter Burg 

Cast: Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Olsen Fouere, Oliver Finnegan, Alister Brammer, John Lynch, Siobhan Hewlett 

A young artist gets stranded in an extensive, immaculate forest in western Ireland, where, after finding shelter, she becomes trapped alongside three strangers, stalked by mysterious creatures each night.

This film is disappointing now much will be sad because this film is from the daughter of M. Night Shyamalan, Ishana Shyamalan. There have already been calls of nepotism or Nepo baby feeling that she only got a big studio release because of who her father is and the fact that he also produced the film. 

Now the film is in a similar style of being something supernatural and mysterious, and having a twist. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make good on its prints as the trailer for this film intrigued me as you didn’t exactly know what was happening. She also follows him and his more recent footsteps of adapting, a little-known or well-hidden novel for the big screen that if not for some research you would think would be an original script. That would work for her father, as his name comes with a certain pedigree and is bigger than any source material.

Once you watch the film and the story is fully explained there would be less mystery, but the problem isn’t that there is less mystery. It’s that it just doesn’t seem the greatest thought out as the script is barely subtle, and along the way becomes a bit predictable or if not predictable it’s nothing you haven’t seen before and other films so that here it just feels like a hodgepodge of ideas combine together to try and make the story work.

It feels more like a first draft than a fully thought-through and finished story. There seems so much potential in the setup, never quite comes together in a meaningful or sensible way, Which is especially shocking considering it’s based on a novel.

The direction is quite inspired and the cinematography is tight, but the rest of the film feels so empty. It’s one of these films that by the end. You don’t really care. You’re just happy that it’s coming to an end. 

Rarely offers surprises or suspense you watch as it goes along and hope it will get better along the way with its twist and it rarely does.

There is a glimmer of hope and promise here, though tighter scripting and a better follow-through will be needed. Especially to follow either in her father’s footsteps or even the car out an original artistic voice of her own.

Grade: D