This weekend marks the third annual Genreblast Film Festival, and one of the more anticipated films this year is Clickbait, which is having its World Premiere at the fest. This is the new film from filmmakers Sophia Cacciola and Michael J Epstein who brought us the insane Eurotrash send-up Blood of the Tribades last year. Boy, oh boy, this film could not be any more different.
Fans of John Waters and Paul Bartel movies are in for a treat with Clickbait. The film centers around a YouTube-like vlog celebrity wannabe whose only competition is a girl dying of cancer. In order to gain more clicks she’s got take things up a notch, and lucky for her, she’s got a stalker who’s filming and posting to her page the invasion of her life.
What could have been another vapid millennial is horrible on social media movie, Clickbait avoids the trappings of other recent movies in the genre like the infuriating Ingrid goes west. It’s so hard to have an annoying lead character like ours in this film and not have the movie itself be annoying.
The filmmakers cleverly walk the fine line between satire and straight up spoof and it works perfectly. Without spoiling too much, the cut in commercials in the movie are a real treat. Moments like the those, and movie’s bravery not to shy away from gorier, grosser moments make this one really stand out.
The film also get high marks for its dialogue. It comes fast and furious and is truly a whole lot of fun. Our two leads, played by Amanda Colby Stewart and Brandi Aguilar, are having an absolute blast in their roles. I mentioned Waters and Bartel earlier because this is not your typical satire. The comedy here is downright bizarre, and it’s quite wonderful. I found myself laughing quite a bit even though I wasn’t quite sure what it was that I was looking at.
Overall, if you’re looking for something completely different, you can’t go wrong with Clickbait. It may not be my favorite horror comedy year, but it really is quite entertaining. Definitely recommended. Be sure to catch the world premiere of Clickbait if you’re in Virginia at the Genreblast Film Festival Saturday September 1st. https://www.genreblast.com/2018-schedule
3.5/5
