Found Footage Anthology ‘Clickbait’ Skewers Online Culture [Review]

Did you know that Psycho was the first major motion picture to feature an onscreen flushing toilet? Modern indoor plumbing had been available for centuries at that point, but, for some reason, studios thought that this ubiquitous technology didn’t fit their vision of a romanticized cinematic reality. While this sounds silly in retrospect, there is still an industry-wide reluctance to depict commonplace trends and technologies that defy the “cinematic ideal.” After all, it was only during the past decade or so that big releases started to include smartphones in their stories, and most movies still have issues with properly depicting emergent media and online culture without sounding like Steve Buscemi wanting to interact with his “fellow kids.”

Fortunately, there’s one area where this definitely isn’t the case, and that would be the Found Footage genre. As far back as the early 2000s, in-world camera movies have been incorporating concepts like social media and online virality into their visual vocabulary through both Screenlife movies as well as productions meant to look like they were originally shot to be online videos. Of course, it takes an especially tech-savvy production team to make sure that these innovations come off naturally, and that brings us to David James Clark, Joe Martinez-Weinberger and Dean Smith’s Clickbait, a horror-comedy anthology film satirizing modern internet culture.

A passion project born from the aftermath of the SAG and WGA strikes of 2023, Clickbait is the first major feature-length film developed by Gallows Humor Pictures, an independent production company founded with the goal of creating budget-friendly genre movies with a comedic edge. And for their first collaboration, the team decided that a bit of meta commentary was in order.

In the finished film, the wraparound segment introduces us to Ralph (Tyler Arceneaux), a struggling livestreamer eager to react to scary videos in order to pull in more viewers on Halloween night. He gets more than he bargained for when a mysterious user promises to grant his wish, leading to a series of gruesome vignettes featuring YouTubers and other influencers dealing with horrific situations – all the while Ralph’s real life begins to spiral into madness.

From Mr-Beast-inspired pranks gone wrong to health influencers being pushed to insanity by the contents of their subscription boxes, there’s an entertaining collection of digital parables here to keep viewers entertained – provided that you’re already familiar with some of the issues afflicting modern day content creation. While I don’t particularly mind the reliance on online in-jokes and parodies of controversial real-world personalities, Clickbait’s attempts at humor might not be quite as effective for audiences who aren’t terminally online.

However, if you are familiar with the internet’s current algorithm-ruled landscape, I’m sure you’ll appreciate the filmmakers’ attention to detail in everything from Ralph’s hilarious chat (one of my favorite aspects of Screenlife movies), as well as the occasional use of genre-accurate jump-cut editing. Even the actors are in on the joke here, playing off of their characters’ exaggerated online personas without becoming so over-the-top that they turn into abrasive cartoon characters. I was especially impressed with Arceneaux as our bumbling lead, as well as Anthony Laurita’s surprisingly dark turn as the leader of a desperate prank channel willing to do anything for clicks.

Of course, the real internet contains enough silly content as it is, so it’s the horror elements that make Clickbait stand out. And with the exception of a weak first segment parodying clout-chasing ghost-hunters, I really enjoyed the film’s peculiar taste for bonkers scares that often match its humorous premise. Sure, the low budget means that some of the gore effects aren’t quite as impressive as something you might see in bigger Found Footage endeavors, but there are enough disturbing ideas here to make up for any technical blemishes.

Unfortunately, the experience is hampered by a messy narrative that focuses more on absurdity and shock value than proper storytelling. I actually really like how all the segments are linked by a thematic connection to influencers and the dangers of online obsession (as well as the fact that the wraparound story works as its own standalone horror yarn), but it’s a shame that so much of what happens onscreen is motivated by sheer randomness instead of any real attempt at a cohesive story.

While I loved the inclusion of insane elements like a Gollum-like little brother for our main character, I would have enjoyed the experience a lot more if these ideas were tied to the plot instead of everything just being the arbitrary result of a generic haunting. In fact, we get little-to-no explanation for any of Clickbait’s supernatural elements. I’m aware that less is more when it comes to establishing lore in the horror genre, but I think the movie would have benefited from a bit more information regarding the exact nature of the entity taunting Ralph.

That being said, there’s still a lot to like about Gallows Humor’s Found Footage debut if you can stomach some iffy production value and a script that mostly serves as an excuse to provide audiences with laugh-out-loud critiques of online culture peppered with the occasional dose of disturbing imagery. Not only that, but Clickbait is also the rare horror anthology that feels like it was produced from the ground up to be an interconnected feature rather than a best-of compilation showing off a collection of unrelated short films. It certainly won’t appeal to everyone, but I think this particular headline is worth clicking on.

If you’re a fan of horror films that satirize online culture, I’d recommend watching Clickbait as part of a double-feature alongside either one of Michelle Iannantuono’s Livescream movies.

Clickbait will premiere at the Frida Cinema in Santa Ana, California on May 31.

The post Found Footage Anthology ‘Clickbait’ Skewers Online Culture [Review] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.