Followed is a 2018 American supernatural horror film written by Todd Klick and directed by Antoine Le, in his feature directorial debut. The film is told almost entirely through a single screencast, in which a sequence of vlogs being watched on a website chronicle the events of the plot. It stars Matthew Solomon as DropTheMike, a controversial vlogger and social media celebrity, who is haunted by strange forces when he takes his weekly vlog to a reputedly cursed hotel in order to gain more subscribers. It stars John Savage, Sam Valentine, Tim Drier, Caitlin Grace and Kelsey Griswold, and is produced by Viscape Arts in association with Branded Pictures Entertainment.
The film had its world premiere at Burbank International Film Festival on September 7, 2018, where it won the award for Best Horror/Thriller Feature Film. It was released in select theaters and drive-ins in the United States on June 19, 2020, and releases on VOD September 1.
Plot
The entire movie is shown through a single screencast recorded by an unknown individual. The user views a series of vlogs made by DropTheMike, a controversial vlogger who disappeared shortly after visiting the Lennox Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. The user repeatedly receives messages from friends of Mike, most of which the user ignores.
DropTheMike receives a sponsorship offer for $250,000 dollars if he gains 50,000 new subscribers. Mike decides to spend the Halloween weekend at the Lennox Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. The hotel has been plagued by tens of suicides and murders since its founding. Most recently, Korean tourist Meghan Kim's burned corpse was found in the hotel's boiler room after security camera footage showed her acting erratically in the hotel elevator.
Mike interviews Wallace Fleischer, an author who tells him about David Olmos, a serial killer and Satanist who resided at the Lennox Hotel in the '80s. The next day, DropTheMike, Nic (his editor), Chris (Mike's religious director of photography), and Dani (sound and camera, and Chris' friend and unrequited love) arrive at the hotel. Mike, Dani, and Chris reside on the top floor in the room where Olmos committed his murders while Nic resides next door to edit the vlogs.
On the second day, Mike and his crew attempt to enter the basement to reach the boiler room, losing their drone when they place it through the chained doors. A security guard, Tony catches them, but reveals he is a fan of Mike and promises to give them the key to the basement.
Mike then researches the “Elevator Game” in which one enters an elevator alone and presses floors in a specific sequence, they will enter another dimension. Concluding Meghan Kim attempted the ritual, Mike plays the game alone and seemingly encounters Kim's ghost. DropTheMike brushes the encounter off as an obsessive fan. After hearing ghostly knocking from their front door, Mike receives a Skype call from Jess, his fiancée, who announces her pregnancy to Mike. Shortly after celebrating, Chris checks in on Nic, finding her in a disturbed, self-harmful state. After seeing a decapitated ghost in the hallway, Chris calls for Mike and Dani, and follow the ghost to the hotel roof. There, they find a satanic altar above their room with a platter holding an animal's tongue.
After the vlog, the mysterious user uploads the third night onto DropTheMike's channel. Mike seemingly recognizes a ghostly child in the hallway and proceeds to chase it. While Mike is gone, Chris and Dani are chased by the hacksaw-wielding ghost of Olmos. When Mike attempts to follow the child to Room 440, he finds himself teleported back to the top floor.
DropTheMike calls Wallace, who tells him that Room 440 belonged to a police detective who, after residing in the hotel, murdered his wife and brought his two sons to the hotel. After killing the eldest son, the detective chased the youngest son to the boiler room. The detective was then killed by a maintenance man who encountered the son. After the interview, Chris is attacked in the bathroom by a ghost from his childhood, and leaves the hotel. Mike convinces Dani to stay, revealing that he was an adopted child.