Followers review
A throwback to an incredibly specific format gives Followers a strong foundation to play (and prey) upon.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers. Followers streams exclusively on Screambox March 12th.
Followers
Directed by James Rich
Written by James Rich
Starring Revell Carpenter, Gigi James, Molly Edelman, James Rich, Jackson Jones, Michael Bonini and Annika Foster
Followers Review
Children of the 70s and early 80s will remember it well. Back in the days before home video became a standard entertainment option…sequels had no way of assuring that movie goers had seen the original story. It’s why Rocky II (among other entries) opens by reshowing almost the entire ending of Rocky. People couldn’t sit at home and watch it at their leisure before the sequel arrived three years later. Cable wasn’t a staple in most homes. There’s a strong chance that if you didn’t see the best picture winner in theaters…you’d never seen it when Rocky II arrived. Early Friday the 13th movies used this tactic as well. A comparison that would have made more sense given that this is a horror movie website reviewing a horror movie sequel.
The point is…perhaps it’s time to return to that structure. Given the ridiculous amount of content available nowadays (spread across multiple pay services) odds of a potential viewer being familiar with the original work lesson. When Stallone’s career maker came out in 1976…there was a lot less competition. I had never heard of Follower before. The plot summary for its upcoming sequel (Followers, of course) left me suspecting it existed, however. It does. Director James Rich released it in 2022. No doubt lost to me in a deluge of content spread across multiple pay services. This is hardly the first time this has happened when reviewing a new release. Scalper and The Cursed Bridge: Ritual shared similar backgrounds recently. Followers solved the issue by returning to a tried-and-true concept from nearly a half century ago. It shows us the story.
It shows us a lot of it. Nearly the first fifteen minutes of Followers is spent watching an edited down version of its predecessor. At least, I assume that’s what is happening. Having never seen the original movie…I guess it’s possible they reshot things. Since the surviving members of that film return for this sequel…I feel safe in saying what I watched is 1/4th of the original 61-minute movie. A wonderful thing for anyone jumping into the series at part 2. Less so for fans of the original.
The format results in something interesting. We aren’t just shown the closing moments of the first movie…we get the whole story truncated down to an extended recap. Fifteen or so minutes later…the new story properly begins. Which means that we’ve already spent a good deal of time with the main characters. We know who they are. We’ve seen what they’ve been through. It adds contextual depth to Followers. More than a reminder of where a story left off (Rocky II) or a “previously on” to set up the world of the film (Friday the 13th Part 2). This feels more like a Grindhouse double feature. Two adventures for the characters each shorter than a standard feature film length on their own. In fact, I wonder if taking the 61 minutes of the original and however long Followers is without the recap and presenting like that wouldn’t work out even better.
Of course…there is one problem with that. By the end of Followers, it’s clear that Rich has Followers 3 (Follow3rs?) on his mind. There is some world building done here that is unmistakable. The focus shifts to an idea that can sustain a third chapter (and beyond). Unfortunately, that means shortchanging the arcs of our returning trio of survivors.
The proper story of Followers picks up fifteen months after the original. Heather (Revell Carpenter) has produced a documentary on their experience surviving a masked killer in part 1. It’s strained her relationships with Sam (Gigi James) and Riley (Molly Edelman). She invites them to a New Year’s Eve gathering to try and reconnect with them…and get them to sign off on their story becoming a major motion picture. There’s an even bigger problem. A cult of masked men crashes the party looking to finish the job.
For all intents and purposes, Sam takes the lead in Followers. Her perspective guides us through the new part of the story. She’s struggling to deal with what happened to her…unsure of how to react to Heather’s desire to rekindle friendship (and profit from it). When the cult of wolf masked killers arrives…Sam finds her worst fears laid out in front of her. At least she gets to push over a ladder one is climbing for one great moment before her night gets even worse.
If you think you know where the story is going, you’ll be right in some regards…but wrong in a key one. Followers is aiming for something different. Something surprising…but something that is difficult to react to. The intention, of course, is to draw you back for a sequel. Maybe it’ll be worth it one day. Watching this film and being left with a cold ending that lacks emotional and narrative payoff, however, feels like a cheat. A middle chapter that flirts with turning you off before the third one arrives. Of course, they can just edit it down to an interesting opening next time anyway.
Scare Value
When I tell you that Followers builds off the platform provided by Follower…I mean that literally. An extended opening shows us the group’s first adventure. It gives us a sense of the characters and the ordeal they will be struggling with the fallout of. There’s an unexpected weight to doing things this way. What follows is a darker story than expected. One that seems more interested in the next movie than narratively paying off this one.
2.5/5
Followers Link
Streaming exclusively on Screambox March 12
