Near – Movie Review
Director: Chris Good Goodwin (Reel)
Writer: Chris Good Goodwin (Screenplay)
Cast
- Connor Scambler
- Lydia Cain
- Angelo Basso
- Janine Fernandez
- Ivo Correia Pereira
- Alexandra Milne
Plot: Hollis suffers from an affliction; anyone who gets too close to him dies.
Runtime: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Near starts when aspiring influencer Hollis (Scambler) believes he is causing people’s deaths. He believes anyone he gets to know gets killed and decides to start filming his life. Hollis decides to pack up his life and move across the country to see his virtual fellow influencer girlfriend Nova (Cain).
Elsewhere, Nova’s housemates Nick (Basso), Ravana (Fernandez) and E (Pereira) have other plans for Nova. They have struggled to make an impact as influencers, often doing more questionable content. It all leads to the two sides coming together, with deadly consequences.
Verdict on Near
Near is a found footage horror movie following desperate influencers trying to make names for themselves. However, one of them discovers they have a problem which sees anyone they make contact with dying. Meanwhile, the others want to make an impact with a job to make them rich quickly.
This movie gets to expose the desperate lives of want-to-be influencers who would do anything for views. It also creates an unusual horror idea of death following somebody around. There is a general feeling that the metaphor about influencers would destroy the lives of the people around them for their own success.
Outside of this idea, it uses random acts of violence like ‘The Happening’ did for the death sequences. These moments are done with a tighter budget which does make some of them feel even more disturbing than you would expect. For a found footage idea, this works well and everything around Hollis’ journey offers disturbing and uncomfortable viewing.
Where to Watch
Near is available to watch on Tubi.
Final Thoughts – Near has a disturbing nature to the anti-influencer movement.