5 Movies Where Social Media Influencers Learn Hard Lessons
I think that the tide is turning against influencers.
After years of watching influencers act like entitled jerks, the world has begun to see them as they really are – regular, often untalented people with bloated egos and little sense of the greater good. Like, I once saw an influencer ask a couple on their honeymoon to move out of the way at a scenic alpine overlook because he was “late posting that day” and “didn’t want his followers to worry.” The couple had been there for all of ten seconds before he did that. Then, all he did was set up a ring light and take 500 pictures of himself making the same pose (arms held out, staring into the mid-distance). So like, what exactly would his followers have been worried about? That he might not fall off the cliff afterwards?
And on that mordant note, I present to you five movies where the influencer gets their just desserts. Just admit it: You’ve been wanting this deep down.
Influencer (2022)
In this psychological horror flick, both the titular influencer and the woman who impersonates her are obnoxious. But only one of them is obnoxious in a murdery way. The other one is just obnoxious in an “I’m faking a perfect life online to make others jealous, despite being deeply miserable” sort of way. In any case, you will feel schadenfreude when the titular influencer becomes stranded on a deserted tropical island without essential survival tools like water, food, and battery life. Rich people living like normals – it’s a hoot!
Mainstream (2020)
This movie stars Andrew Garfield as an influencer who builds an entire career around mocking and parodying influencers in viral videos. At first, you’re rooting for him. We’re all rooting for him. But then you realize that he’s just as self-centered, inconsequential, thoughtless and even cruel as some of the influencers he makes fun of. On top of that, you also realize he’s a fraud. Essentially, he’s the actual thing that he purportedly hated. On the other hand, he loses the respect and support of his friends, despite becoming wildly successful online. What an understandable turn of events!
Deadstream (2022)
Written, directed, and produced by a husband-and-wife team, this critically approved indie supernatural horror comedy is a droll, compact look at a disgraced “Internet personality,” Shawn (read: Logan Paul), who stages a comeback after posting a thoughtless, insensitive racist video and losing all his followers. He does this by filming himself spending the night at the site of a former murder, obviously. Unfortunately, this introduces him to the ghost of a dead Mormon who wants to use Shawn’s follower count to gain a living audience for her bad poetry. (This movie is wild.) Anyway, Shawn apologizes for being a racist idiot too late and never quite stages that comeback. So sad!
Not Okay (2022)
There were a lot of movies about influencers in 2022, I guess! This one, which debuted on Hulu, stars Zoey Deutch in another unlikeable role as Danni Sanders, who fakes a trip to Paris and then accidentally goes viral after her friends think she was in a terrorist attack. She doesn’t correct them, of course, and instead spins the “tragedy” into a career as an influencer. She’d rather be a writer, though, but wouldn’t most influencers? In any case, Danni’s life crumbles around her after everyone realizes how fake and terrible she is. Oopsies!
Tragedy Girls (2017)
If you prefer satire and dark comedy with your horror, then Tragedy Girls is your cup of tea (streaming on Peacock). In this movie, the titular girls, Sadie and McKayla, are so desperate for fame that they embark on a killing spree to get attention. There’s queer subtext, laughs, and satire galore. And yet, the serial killing influencers of this movie never truly face the consequences of their actions. The movie ends up skewering the very people who prop up terrible people like Sadie and McKayla in their selfish quest for fame – basically, you and me. In the end, it isn’t just influencers who should be taking a long, hard look at themselves. Well, obviously they already do that in the mirror, but I mean internally.