October is here, and with that, Screamfest is having its annual festival! We were lucky enough to be able to check an interesting Psychological thriller called “Follow Her”, which was screened on October 14th.

In order to go deep to the good stuff right away, let me copy paste the official synopsis:

“Struggling actress and live-streamer Jess Peters (Dani Barker), known to her online followers as J-PEEPS, has finally found her hook: Secretly filming creepy interactions she encounters via online job listings, and using the kinks of others to fuel her streaming success. For her next episode, she’s been hired to write the ending of a screenplay in a remote, lavish cabin. Once there, Tom (Luke Cook), the alluring self-proclaimed screenwriter, hands her a script in which the two of them are the main characters. This client isn’t what he seems, and even though the money’s great… the real payment here could cost her life.”

All right, let’s dig in!

“Follow her” brings a premise that you might believe you know what is going on, and you probably will be HALF right. However, the story never pretends to be too clever nor does it hide clues to rack your brains (on a second viewing you will note some hints that we might have understandably missed). The script has a message, but it does not beat your head with it, like unfortunately too many films do these days. It is not shaming you nor lecturing you, instead it lets you have your own analysis on several themes, but mainly poses the question about going too far just for the sake of fame and likes without being accountable for the damage you might be causing to others. The script does not shy away of pointing out double standards, while poking fun about thriller movies cliches and other troupes, it does a good job managing to integrate all those opinions without stopping the plot from being fun, coy, and yes, at moments, scary.

All of this is very enjoyable thanks to a good pacing, but also due the chemistry between the leads Dani Barker (Who also wrote the script) and Luke Cook.
Jess (Barker) at first looks at “Tom” as a new target for the web show, but later on, she seems to loose her focus and starts to be interested on her new employer/writing partner, but can it be that she is just THAT good at pretending?
And how about Tom (Cook)? Is he really interested on creating a written masterpiece, or he would rather go for something more on the vein of a “reality show”?
With the excuse of brainstorming the script with the use of an improvisation exercise, we see them flirt, dance and smile, but deep down we can see that inside of both of them, there might be an ulterior motive for them to be there. You can try to guess the ending and the twist and turns, but I really would suggest to just let yourself go and enjoy the ride.

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