Movie
The Influencer Project
Cultural messages
Screens Are Ruining Us
mediumAll three core elements are present: (1) social media is depicted as harmful to authentic experience — Chiara's life is entirely staged (fake haunted-location scares, brand sponsorships, a curated 'comfortable facade'); (2) the harm comes from normal platform use, not malfunction — the stalker exploits ordinary DM and follower features to surveil and threaten her; (3) Chiara loses autonomy and safety through her technology-mediated existence, with the crew blurring the line between content and evidence. Signal support: platforms manipulate behavior (Chiara weaponizes her fanbase to bully the stalker off the platform, and debates whether filming — i.e., content production — should even continue); convenience hollows out meaning (staged scares and brand content are explicitly framed as performance masking authentic reality, the 'comfortable facade' that fractures); and Chiara's professional identity is so fully captured by the platform that the compulsive continuation of filming even under threat reflects screen-addiction logic.
About this message: Consumer technology — smartphones, social media, VR, the internet — is portrayed as inherently dehumanizing, addictive, or isolating, even when working as designed. The technology doesn't malfunction; its normal use is the problem.
Movies that share these tropes
Full plot (spoilers)
The Influencer Project is a found-footage horror-thriller following Chiara King, a real-life content creator who travels to Copenhagen with a documentary crew offering an unfiltered look at the business of online fame. The crew films her daily influencer activities: brand sponsorships, fan meet-and-greets, and staged scares in supposedly haunted locations designed to boost viewership. The comfortable facade fractures when a mysterious follower using the username 'KingSlayer' begins sending threatening direct messages along with photographs proving they have eyes on Chiara in person. The threat triggers a cycle of panic and escalation: Chiara attempts to weaponize her own fanbase to bully the stalker off the platform and get his accounts banned, while debating whether filming should continue at all. As the stalker proves repeatedly and disturbingly close, a professional security detail is brought in to protect her. The documentary crew keeps rolling throughout, blurring the boundary between content and evidence. The third act abandons the grounded stalker-thriller setup in favor of more conventional horror turns and unexpected plot twists, shifting the tone from social-media-anxiety realism toward genre spectacle. The film is set against Copenhagen locations, runs approximately 95 minutes, and is presented in a mockumentary/found-footage style. It is described as influenced by actual events.
Sources: Flickering Myth review, Rotten Tomatoes, MUBI, Web search aggregated results (Letterboxd, Fandango, Plex)