'The Influencer' Project Review: Thrilling Trailer Relies on Overexposure

When influencer, singer and content creator Chiara King visits Copenhagen, every trip to trendy shops and chic restaurants soon gets worse for the British influencer, singer and content creator. Chiara King appears in this exercise as an influencer, singer and content creator, or a fictionalized version of herself. This is not necessarily due to the gargle that erupts in the last episode, but due to the strange and

Influencer/Singer/Content Creator Kiara King stars as influencer/singer/content creator Kiara King, or a fictional version of herself, in this exciting action thriller. The absurdity doesn't necessarily come from the final grunt that erupts in the last reel, but from the strangeness of the way the film uses the behavior of social media circles and broadcast nonsense to both satirize the ugly side of the business, while simultaneously exploiting and profiting from it. On one level, it's an eerily clever exercise in bad faith, like a poor Michael Haneke (think Funny Games) flick for Gen-Z. On the other hand, maybe it's just a pointless trope of already overexposed online tropes. or both.

Anyway, here's what happens: influencer Chiara is invited by a tourist organization to visit Copenhagen, a deal set up by her greedy manager Alice (Jazmine Summer). Of course, this means that practically every moment of her waking life in the city is being filmed, either by Kiara herself on her trusty smartphone, or by a camera crew led by director Mike (played by Mike Nybroe, who also manages Project Influencer, ha ha). Mike is supported by voice actor Daniel (Daniel Parmo) and cameraman Victor (Luca Storm). Early episodes are punctuated by shopping trips to trendy grocers like Baum und Pferdgarten, and meals at upscale local restaurants, followed by a live “haunted house” tour, something that's all the rage these days on Instagram and TikTok.

But the product placement is somewhat interrupted by moments of real fear (or "real fear"), when Kiara starts receiving threatening direct messages (from someone calling himself the KingSlayer) asking her not to talk, for reasons that aren't clearly explained at first, or else he'll kill and rape her, not necessarily that way. This unexpectedly messes up Kiara's trip, but if she just quits and goes home, she'll lose $100,000 in deals, so that's not an option.

So are we supposed to despise Kiara for her greed or admire her girl-boss's tenacity in not being intimidated by a burglar? And what about the film's claims that it was partly inspired by real-life chase incidents? Nybro and co discuss the endless stream of comments we see moving alongside Kiara's live stream—a river of chatter that doesn't stop even when the credits roll, an ersatz dialectic for the age of digital reproduction.

The Influencer Project opens in UK and Irish cinemas from October 16.