Demonetize
Writers: Alexander Boyd Watson, Janine Hogan
Director: Alexander Boyd Watson
Cast: Janine Hogan, Matty Cardarople, Cherdleys, Doug Jones, Sean Carrigan, Lexi Collins, Alice Wen
Demonetize opens with a quote from Shane Madej from BuzzFeed Unsolved and Ghost Files, so right away I was on board.
You don't need to know who Madej is to understand the basic tone Alexander Boyd Watson's new film is aiming for, but it certainly helps. This is a movie immersed in the influencer economy, about people who traffic in attention and subscribers, with a specific focus on the strange highwire act that comes when the spirits of the dead are involved. Paranormal YouTube is its own strange world even within the wider strangeness of YouTube and its fellow video-sharing apps, and Watson and co-writer and star Janine Hogan are clearly out to tap into that from the start, with lots of knowing winks and tongue-in-cheek fun along the way. The opening quote helps to set that tone, but even without it, this movie is off like a shot, an impish romp for the influencer age that blends madcap humor with some genuinely effective scares for a hell of a fun time.
Ghost hunters Martin (Sean Carrigan) and Terrence (Matty Cardarople) are in a tough spot. They've invested a lot of time and money into building up their latest haunt, Ratliff House, as a genuine hotspot of paranormal activity, the only place in the world where cameras have captured 100 percent real evidence of ghosts. The internet being what it is, though, it's hard to get enough people to believe them, so Martin and Terrence issue a wider challenge: Any influencer who can survive an entire night in the house without fleeing in panic gets a hefty cash prize. In return, Martin and Terrence get built-in new audiences through collabs, and hopefully a cash haul of their very own.
Several influencers quickly answer the call, including Jane (Hogan), a former internet comedian trying to find a way back to full-time content creation on her own terms. Joining her in the house are obnoxious YouTube prankster Paul Cory (Chad Lebaron), confrontational and compulsively lying influencer Tara (Lexi Collins), singer and cutesy content creator Brie (Alice Wen), and skeptical tech expert Spencer (Juliano Hodges). After recording goodbye messages to their followers, the content creators are each asked to surrender their phones, given a slew of ghost-hunting equipment, and locked in the house with the promise that they can leave (forfeiting the prize, of course) any time they want. Ratliff House, naturally, has other ideas.
There's an immediate authenticity at work in the way the cast fills out their characters and their respective gimmicks, in no small part because these young stars are content creators in their own rights, and thus well-versed in the attention economy. The film wastes no time in putting together its team of often competitive influencers and creators, giving each their own flavor, style, and edge which allows them to foil someone else in the group. If you've taken even a passing glance at YouTube or TikTok in the last couple of years, you immediately recognize each of them, and that primes Demonetize to do two things: Get its story rolling very quickly, and subvert expectations.
If it weren't for the occasional bite of stiff dialogue that reminds you that these people were put together for the purposes of a singular narrative, the ensemble work that dominates Demonetize might seem entirely improvisational. It just feels that natural, and the entire cast, led by Hogan, seems to put their own stamp on every single scene. As the film goes on, and the supernatural elements of the story kick into gear, the comedy intensifies, but so too does the sense of soul-searching, as Jane and her new friends (or frenemies, depending) do some soul-searching while they search for souls. There's nothing preachy about it, or condescending to a generation of creators and fans alike who've come up in this world, but there is a thoughtful quality to it all that gives the film added depth. It's a fun ride when it's just the story of five content creators trapped in an increasingly hostile haunted house, but it's a poignant one too.
Then there are the horror elements, which blend comedy, gore, and terror beautifully in ways that recall other recent indie horror hits like Deadstream, Werewolves Within, and more. There are moments that dropped my jaw and churned my stomach followed immediately by huge belly laughs, and then there are moments of genuine, dread-laced peril that remind us, in over-the-top ways, that it actually costs something for people to jump into content creation as a career. In its own way, while delivering a devilish, gruesome delight, Demonetize is also a haunting examination of what it means to give yourself over to an audience that, in turns, haunts you, and that makes it a movie that'll reward rewatching. This is a horror-comedy gem with real bite, and fans of indie genre films should seek it out.
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