YOU KNOW WHAT I LIKE
Main Cast: Nicolas Shake, Chloe Dumas
Director: Kevin Mandiboure
Found footage. Ghost story. Four words to attach to your movie if you want to guarantee I’m all in.
For example, Vincent Darkman (writer) and Kevin Mendiboure’s (director) 2017 movie The Follower.
YouTuber David Baker has been contacted by Caroline Anderson to come investigate her family home for ghosts. But what David finds is less paranormal and more psycho chick who wants a hook-up.
David, who has had enough of the “is it a ghost, or Caroline playing games to keep him hanging around”, goes back home and tries to get on with his life. But a month later, he starts getting visits of his own. Words written in steam on the bathroom mirror, his front door opening by itself. David enlists the aid of a real paranormal investigator, but what he uncovers is impossible.
And where that discovery leads him, he might not come back from alive.
The Follower is, in my opinion, equal parts clumsy and effective. It’s clearly made on a small budget, but with tons of drive and passion. Some of the haunting scenes are creepy and tense, but then every so often a non-paranormal section of the story will pull you out of the movie.
For example, in an early scene when David first meets Caroline and he comments on how intimidating her dog is, growling like that. We pan down and the dog is sitting there peacefully, tongue lolling, but seemingly just as gentle as could be.
Little things like that make me laugh, but overall I’m watching a found footage ghost story and that’s where my real attention is. And for me, The Follower makes good on the contract between movie and viewer.
Darkman’s script could have used a little fine-tuning to cut out some of the clutter, but I dug how well the characters’ personalities were conveyed through dialogue. And Mendiboure is clearly a horror fan who loves what he does.
Overall, The Follower was a slightly flawed but very effective take on a story we’re familiar with, but definitely brought enough new to make it a fun watch.
It’s definitely worth a watch.
Currently available on Amazon Video – free if you’re a member of Amazon Prime.
C. Dennis Moore is the author of over 60 published short stories and novellas in the speculative fiction genre. Most recent appearances are in the Dark Highlands 2, What Fears Become, Dead Bait 3 and Dark Highways anthologies. His novels are Revelations, and the Angel Hill stories, The Man in the Window, The Third Floor, and The Flip.
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