At this point, influencer-based horror is pretty much a dime a dozen. This oversaturated subgenre already feels a little tired and, frankly, quite dated as well. Despite a clever social media presentation and an energetic final act, this “influenced by true events” thriller has no shortage of annoying characters, obvious commentary, and silly mysteries. Despite being from the producers of The Blair Witch Project, tired and overlong The Influencer Project will make you want to quickly unfollow whoever sloppily threw it together.
In a none-too-surprising cold open, during an Instagram Live, a young girl enthusiastically announces her intentions to go viral. Moments later, she hangs herself directly on the stream. It’s a nasty sequence that establishes an obsession with social media engagement as currency. Yet, it does not even begin to scratch the surface of the parasocial relationship that unfolds against the lead. From there, we meet Chiara (real life influencer Chaira King), an influencer being followed by a documentary film crew as she attempts to reach ten million followers. She admits to spending upwards of fourteen to sixteen hours every day on her phone, desperately hungry for brand deals and constantly thinking about the content she can generate from practically every moment of her life. The film even incorporates Instagram directly into the screen, scrolling through posts, follower counts, comments, and potential sponsorships as Chiara’s online popularity continues to balloon.
Initially, watching Chiara go about her day to day appears mildly compelling, especially given her carefully curated life. When Chiara learns that her followers enjoy seeing her scared, she’s encouraged to visit haunted locations and lean into increasingly frightening content. Someone calling himself Kingslayer starts sending threatening messages, upending her image of perfection. He asks what she would be without her pretty face, sends voyeuristic photographs of her walking around, and starts appearing in creepy videos wearing a strange mask. Naturally, Chiara turns the harassment into content.
What follows attempts to string together Chiara’s growing popularity with the increasingly ominous presence of Kingslayer. Chiara herself is difficult to invest in, coming across as vapid and irritating for much of the movie. After being assaulted on a dance floor, naturally, her first instinct is to record her tearful reaction. This is no fault to Chiara herself: the actress really sells the role, especially in an extended finale that finally delivers the intensity we have been building towards. The final twenty minutes are easily the strongest stretch of the movie. If what came before was a little less repetitive and gimmicky, we could have a genuinely great movie on our hands. Hell, even a decent one would be welcomed.
The biggest problem with The Influencer Project is that it never genuinely attempts to critique the culture. There’s plenty to explore about parasocial relationships and far beyond. Instead, the found footage flick mostly settles for takeaways that influencers are shallow, followers are obsessive, and social media is bad. Chiara being a real-life UK influencer gives the project an additional meta layer, but even that cannot manage to mold the material into authenticity. Making it to the suspenseful final act becomes a slog, and even the entertaining climax gets saddled with ridiculous dialogue and predictable commentary. For a movie obsessed with going viral, The Influencer Project desperately needed stronger material to latch onto the zeitgeist. With the strength of horror in 2026, this film will barely be a footnote.
Like, subscribe, and follow The Influencer Project, in UK cinemas from 16th October, before coming to DVD, Blu-ray and all major Digital Platforms 30th November.
