Dark Film Review: The Influencer

Review by Casey Douglass

Social media is the amplifier of our time. Whatever you bring to it, it boosts it and shoots it out to other people who think like you do, while its algorithms feed similar themes from others, back to you. Certain people become very well known, gaining a massive following that businesses with bundles of cash eye greedily as an untapped revenue stream. The Influencer is a dark comedy thriller that follows one such popular person as they grapple with their “brand”, the lucrative contract that comes their way, and the forces that want to use them as a pawn in their own machinations.

Abbie Rose (Kasia Szarek) is a fashion, makeup and lifestyle vlogger, trying to manage her business and her brand. Nutrocon, an exploitative cosmetic company that treats women badly, tests on animals and pollutes the environment, offers her a tasty contract, one which promises to ease her money worries. Abbie signs and a short time later finds herself suffering a home invasion by bickering masked activists. What then unfolds is a manipulative scheme, one with Abbie as the key component, the activists making use of her large following, her image and the power of technology, to try to pull off their aims.

As a thriller, The Influencer does present the viewer with a number of mysteries to ponder, and I felt that it did a decent job of answering these questions as the story ticked along. I did successfully guess what was happening a number of times, but there were certainly moments that I didn’t see coming. One of these happened almost at the ending, where the actions of one of the characters did cause me to reappraise my opinion about them, which was a pleasing and satisfying surprise.

When a film sees its characters make use of technology or the internet, how these actions are portrayed becomes very important if the viewer has any hope of following along. Thankfully, The Influencer does a really good job of mimicking and representing the social-media apps and websites integral to the story, a smooth, clear user-interface sitting comfortably over the live action beneath. Another aspect that I really enjoyed was Thomas Yount’s electronic, retro-feeling score. It felt like just the right kind of soundtrack, both warm and bouncy yet dark and ominous too.

There is humour in The Influencer, but I have to admit that most of it wasn’t really to my own taste. The element that I found most humorous were the jokes that poked fun at the frequent shallowness of social media, particularly the scenes where Abbie’s captives threatened to release her private, “badly lit” pictures to the world if she didn’t play ball. This sees Abbie crumple to the ground in tears, fearing for her image and her brand, something that Kasia Szarek plays wonderfully. There is also a scene early in the film, where a group of dead-eyed interns fail to be roused by Abbie’s enthusiasm, which did tickle me.

The Influencer is a quirky look at the dark side of how some influencers can behave when large financial enticements become a factor in their lives. Sure, it takes things to extremes, but how often do we see someone raving about the latest video-game, headphones or fashion accessory, and then never mention it again? One of the most poignant quotes from the film for me was “It’s crazy the kind of influence you have when no-one knows who you are!” I’d guess that extends to the influencer in question not knowing themselves properly either, which just goes to show how complicated us humans can be.

Look out for The Influencer from 14 September on streaming platforms including iTunes, Amazon and Google Play. It will also be available on DVD and through various cable and satellite TV services.

I was given access to a review copy of this film.

Film Title: The Influencer

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Thriller

Production Company: Daisy Eagle Films, Wizard Cats

Distributor: Breaking Glass Pictures

Written, directed and produced by: Meghan Weinstein

Releases: 14 September 2021

Starring: Kasia Szarek, Shantelle Yasmine Abeydeera, Thea Cantos, Mark Valeriano, Victoria D. Wells, Ian Jones.

Music: Thomas Yount

Dark Fiction: YEAR ONE Anthology

Back in June 2019, my dark drabble The Carrion Maven was posted by Black Hare Press on their website. A couple of days ago, they released the YEAR ONE anthology, a collection of all of the nano-tales published in the Dark Moments online archive during last year. The Carrion Maven is inside it. If you'd like to buy the anthology, you can find it on Amazon at this link.

Dark Fiction - The Carrion Maven

I have a short (very short) piece of fiction now up at Black Hare Press called The Carrion Maven. Click here to read it and here to visit the Dark Moments page where you can read others' work too.

Dark Ambient Review – Tower Of Silence

Dark Ambient Review – Tower Of Silence

Review by Casey Douglass

Anything that mentions a tower usually leads me to thinking about the Tower of Babel, the mythical construction that tried to reach heaven, but which God stymied by causing language-based confusions amongst its builders. As you can imagine, I’m a riot when Jenga is broken out! While the builders might not have been united by language, their drive to reach heaven, avoid hell and to delay death is something many will identify with. I had these thoughts in mind when I began listening to Xerxes The Dark’s Tower Of Silence, and they were thoughts that would fuel an interesting expedition into something both dark and mesmerizing.

Album Description: Xerxes The Dark invites you to this excarnation, a high quality dark ambient journey, inspired by historic, contemporary and future events. Tower Of Silence is a mixture of drones, ritual ambient, dark and cold atmospheres with a touch of haunted field recordings. Recommended for the fans of psychological thriller, horror and mystery literature.

As a whole, Tower Of Silence presents the listener with shuffling distortions, ominous clangs and discordant tones that meld together into something both atmospheric and claustrophobic at the same time. A track that demonstrates this perfectly is The Omen (A Schizomanic Trip), a track that is also my favourite on the album. A juddering rhythm opens things, fleshy drippings and gluggings quick on its heels. Distorted electronic shrills buzz and whine in the air. Then came my favourite element, the sound of what could be a breathless shuffling creature, and this in turn, is soon married to a kind of police-siren shrilling. There are background whispers, and later what could be a roar. With the title of the track already channelling thoughts of the film with the same name, this track seemed to signify the coming of the dark one, or a dark one at least, and its miasma of busy rustlings and rattlings was a joy to listen to.

The next track, Dagon (MMXX), is also another favourite of mine, and it contrasts with The Omen (A Schizomanic Trip), in a number of ways. It opens with the sound of crashing water and the roar of a leviathan, setting this soundscape in the most watery of settings. The deep vibrating sound, when combined with a kind of metallic shimmer, makes this a quieter track in some ways, but one equally as engrossing. Later can be heard what might be a bell-like tolling, mixed with the signal sweeps of a radio scanner. It had me thinking of the classic Harryhausen films in which some god or other would rise from the sea to terrorise the mortals quaking on the shore. A fun, wet track to be sure.

The final track I wanted to talk about in-depth is Man & Deviance, because it created such a strong image for me. It opens with a scuttling/scraping sound, and a kind of pulsing that hints at pressure building in the aether. A fast-whispering begins, a resonance hanging in the air behind it. There are heavy footsteps and insidious clickings and rattlings. The latter part of the track seems to present vocalisations that could be someone calling for help or crying out in despair. The image this track created for me was of an angel being kept in captivity, probably in some twisted tower where the shadows seep and the shackles are rimmed with rusty nails. A darkly menacing track, infused with corruption.

Tower Of Silence is a wary shuffle along dark corridors, a shuffle in which the listener is feeling their way by sound, and fingertips against stone, wondering why the air is so hot and their brow is so moist. The tracks it contains all seem to usher something dark into the mind, and offer it a lullaby to entice it to stay. A great dark ambient album for anyone’s collection.

Click here to visit Tower Of Silence’s Bandcamp page, and check out the album preview mix below:

I was given a review copy of this album.

Album Title: Tower Of Silence

Album Artist: Xerxes The Dark

Released: 25 Jan 2019

Dark Fiction - River

Dark Fiction - River

By Casey Douglass

The first body floated past the town. It went unnoticed, soon lost around the gurgling bend.

The  second passed early the next morning and was spied by a fisherman. A host left the town, tracking the river in the hopes of retrieving the unfortunate soul. While these were away, a third body became entangled in the small jetty, the place where the children liked to sit and dangle their small feet into the gentle current.

More bodies appeared with every turning of the clock, the small warehouse behind the main-street soon turned into a makeshift morgue. Word had been sent for the coroner, but he was hundreds of miles away. Amateur sleuths tried their hand at deduction, many thrown off by the injuries that the bodies had endured during their watery journey. One person guessed right, and then the others saw it too: Suicide.

Crosses were sketched in the air with shaking fingers, tears shed for people not known, and tongues clucked about the state of the world.

The coroner didn't come.

A traveller did.

She walked into town with her garish clothes and laptop bag swinging from her shoulder. No one approached her, a state of affairs that always arose when people from the sinful world entered their haven. Broaching no games, she strode up to the mayor and showed him something on the glowing device in her hand.

A friendly alien invasion had taken place.

The town's folk didn't comprehend, but a meeting was called, and the traveller explained more, her gesticulations and enthusiasm at odds with the statue-like audience. It was a time of revelation, she said. They made us, she crooned. They’ve come back to elevate us to our full potential she gushed.

She moved on the next day, the town stifling in its silence. Even the dogs and chickens held their tongues. Minds weighed with doubt turned their thoughts to the towns upstream, the places the bodies had flowed from. Good places, pure. God-fearing.

The first suicide in the town came the next night, but no one saw as the body splashed into the river. The next was caught in the nick of time, the noose pulled slack with sweating fingers as colour returned to the skin.

A mass was called, the sermon reaching the ears of the shaking townsfolk. Suicide is a sin, and not the way to show your love for God!

A voice shouted that God didn’t make us!

Another yelled that he did, that Satan had come!

A third bellowed the query of who made the aliens? God of course!

The pressure cooker of debate smashed together the tidbits of belief and desire, until the township came to the decision to merely conduct themselves as before, observing their prayers to the Lord, and showing that their faith was strong enough to meet this challenge, whatever it may be.

The aliens did elevate humanity, a little bit each day, until hundreds of years later, humans roamed the stars with their new allies, their makers, dancing in the light of super-novae, skimming black holes, and enjoying a life without boundaries.

A taint pursued them though.

However far they went, whichever star they orbited, some were dogged by the phantom of a bygone age, by the thought of an unseen power whose hand stretched towards them wherever they might rest. These people withheld their awe, suppressed their wonder, and waited for the lash to fall, the lash of a whip that transcended space and time.

THE END

Dark Fiction - Prick Version 2.0

Prick Version 2.0

Written by Casey Douglass

(Bad language / adult content below)

‘How are you feeling?’

‘Not bad thanks.’

‘Okay, how are you really feeling? You’re grinning like a Cheshire cat!’

‘They’ve pumped me full of happy pills or something Rod! It’s amazing!’

‘Thought so. Shit!’

‘Don’t be a hater Roddy boy!’

‘I’m not being a hater Phil, it’s just that I need you to be more with it if this is going to happen.’

‘Oooh the packing case over there... is that your new toy?’

‘It is.’

‘And I’m the lucky guinea pig?’

‘You are, if you want to be.’

‘Hmmm.’

‘You don’t?’

‘I thought you said you couldn’t get it to work safely with rats? If it made poor old Roland’s brain leak out of his ears, why will it work for me?’

‘We’ve improved it since then, the guys and girls at the lab are a talented bunch. I’ll admit it still wouldn’t be allowed to be used anywhere though, for many years, if ever.’

‘Maybe you had it set to liquidise rather than blend last time. Sounds just groovy.’

‘Think it over properly, you know what I said it can do.’

‘Rewrite my mental firmware with something a bit less... depressed?’

‘Something like that.’

‘What if it goes wrong?’

‘Then you’ll probably be a vegetable. This is why I need you to be more with it Phil, you need to understand what you are saying yes to. You’re my friend and if this goes wrong, the only way I`ll be able to live with myself is to know that you really wanted me to do it. Otherwise, I just can’t. And here you are doped up on goofballs or whatever the doctors have got you on!’

‘Hey, I know what’s what thanks.’

‘You know why you are here, what happened?’

‘Indeed I do. I got into difficulty while out for a swim.’

‘Christ. Most people don’t swim at night, in the river, with bricks in their coat pockets. Stop giggling for fuck sake!’

‘Maybe I’ve founded a new Olympic sport!’

‘This is the third time. I don’t want you to keep trying to do this, which is why I’m risking my job just to see if I can help you. We seem to have tried everything else and you are still hell bent on ending yourself. You’re worrying about being a vegetable or whatever else might go wrong... if you walk out of here in a few days and try to top yourself again, you’ll have lost far more than your mind!’

‘Even if your gadget works, what will you try to switch around?’

‘I’ll try doing one small change, just to see how we get on.’

‘And that change?’

‘I was thinking about... you know how you said a few weeks ago, about how you don’t seem to enjoy anything any more?’

‘Yep!’

‘Please stop grinning like that, you don’t win a prize for remembering!’

‘Sorry, go on...’

‘Well I’m going to try to make you enjoy the fact that you don’t enjoy things, just in the short term.’

‘Hmmm. Not very enticing is it.’

‘Might be life saving though. Who knows. I’m out on a limb here, this is no man’s land.’

‘It makes me think about something I read on the Internet awhile ago.’

‘Stop right there.’

‘Someone, for a joke, said, imagine if your sexual fetish, the thing that turned you on the most, was the sight of your own flaccid penis. You’d never be happy! You’d start to get turned on, then would lose interest! It’s like a pervy Zen koan. What’s the sound of one hand fap-’

‘It’s not really like that!’

‘Ping!’

‘I understand your point but it’s not. If it works we’ll fine-tune it anyway, if it doesn’t, well, we’ll both be in the shit.’

‘Will I lose consciousness?’

‘Maybe for a few minutes.’

‘You won’t, you know... interfere with me while I’m out will you?’

‘If I wanted to see a middle-aged man’s penis I’d pay closer attention to my own the next time I go to the gents!’

‘Pity you don’t do that anyway, the mess you leave around my toilet when you miss is just criminal!’

‘Fucking wake up Phil! This needs to happen now if it’s going to. One chance, what’s it to be? I’m here to help you, I care about you, but even allowing for the drugs you’re on, you are pissing me the fuck off!’

‘Do it.’

‘You’re sure?’

‘Yes.’

‘Positive?’

‘Yes.’

‘What day is it?’

‘Wednesday.’

‘What year?’

‘2017.’

‘Which political party is in power?’

‘That bunch of useless wankers.’

‘That could apply at any time but I’ll take it. Seems like you know what’s what... Let’s get started then.’

‘I do hope it works, and I do appreciate what you’re doing, the risks you’re taking.’

‘I know you do Phil, there’s no need to say it.’

‘There’s one thing I do want to say though, before you crack open that case and put that gizmo on my head.’

‘What’s that?’

‘The doctor will be doing her rounds soon. If she walks in while you’re doing it and I’m out, she’s allowed to interfere with me, okay? She’s a lovely lady. Irish I think.’

‘Duly noted. You’re such a prick.’

‘That’s Prick Version 2.0 to you!’

‘God help me.’

THE END

Thanks for reading. I really wanted to write a dialogue only piece of fiction as apparently, I have a knack for writing interesting dialogue, according to a handful of comments at least. I've been in a darker mood than usual so it felt good to channel something into this piece. It was also quite nice to have a bit of a swear fest. 

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Dark Fiction - The House Nanfula

The House Nanfula

Written By Casey Douglass

Time ago, evil did dwell

in the house Nanfula,

locals know well.

Smoking harbingers of death fly easily over the unwatched land, sentinels cost awareness and flow where you don't want them to go. Black clouds blot the sky like unwanted fly spawn peppering a spider’s web; conveyor belts of death and corruption. The wind blows like the wheeze of an elderly man, currents licking around the door-frame, setting the crinkled stain and paint flapping.

The house sits on the hill like a squat giant, the doors and gables adding expression to its stormy facade. Deep in the valley, tiny specks work the fields, warily glancing up at the looming building, a mixture of fear and respect etched into their countrified features. Inbreeding cannot water down this original and most primal of fears.

Myths and legends abound concerning House Nanfula. Some say it was the scene of one of Caligula’s orgies, although how he got here and orchestrated such a thing remains a mystery. Other tales tell of murders, schemes and plots blacker than the darkest night, of unseen things slithering in the cellars, ready to seep out on certain full moons to suck the life from any that might venture too near. It is a house of ill omen and one that the gentry folk would very much like splintered, burnt and detonated. Birds don't venture near it any more, the strange sickly sweet smell seems to repel anything in which warm blood pulses.

Squat on the hill

dark windows squinting

the land around its hunting ground.

House Nanfula, a place to which corrupted souls are bound.

***

I wrote the above awhile ago and came across it again when browsing my raw material folder. While not fully formed, and the poetry not that skillful (in my opinion), I enjoyed the effect that it created, so I thought I'd post it up after some edits. If you are interested, the picture that goes with it is an edited picture of a taxidermied tiger that I took years ago. I used Gimp 2 to edit it as I am too poor to possess Photoshop sadly. Thanks for reading.

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Dark Poetry - Strangled

(Click for larger readable image)

When I open my mouth
dust comes out,
the machinery of expression clogged
with vintage dreams.

When I open my mouth
my heart dies,
a lonely imp in a rusty cage
swinging from a barbed wire noose.

When I open my mouth
smoke flows forth,
the burning cremation
laying waste to old forms.

When I open my mouth
flames burst out.

I blast the world to ruin.

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Dark Game Review - Homesick

I take a look at Lucky Pause's PC game Homesick over on Amongst Geeks here. A visually stunning game that does a great job of imparting a feeling of isolation to the gamer.

Image © Copyright Lucky Pause

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Dark Fiction - Quantum Agitation

Quantum Agitation

By Casey Douglass

Lunfar crackled and fizzed as the stray transition particles jumped from his negatively charged body to the positive conference room around him. He blinked.

Singed bodies littered the large wood conference table, their limbs shrunken, the tang of fried blood cloying and enveloping the room in a shroud.

Lunfar looked down at the distorter gun in his hand. The nub on the end glowed red.

‘Status report Lunfar,’ a voice crackled in his ear piece.

‘Assignment completed.’

‘Full awareness?’

‘Negative. After event appraisal only.’

‘Confirmed. Return when your translocater has charged.’

‘Affirmative.’

Lunfar heard the link click into silence. A small melody chimed in his other ear. The translocater was ready. He looked at the scene around him and sighed. You got one like this about three times in ten. They always disappointed him the most. Not that he was a fan of killing. Quants like him kept the timeline clean and running on a better course for the Society. He didn’t fully understand the science but knew that they harnessed quantum events to burrow through time and space. The trouble with this is that every now and then, your body arrives a few seconds ahead of your full mental faculties. This isn’t that dangerous to a trained unit, but it still often left the Quant standing bemused surrounded by a ‘job well done’ with no memory of doing it. He sniffed.

He twisted his head to the right and craned his neck to the right until it cracked. The melody sounded again and he blipped out of existence.

THE END

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Dark Review - Equilibrium Overturned

Equilibrium Overturned Review

By Casey Douglass

(I was given a free copy to review)

Equilibrium Overturned from Grey Matter Press is billed as a collection of tales that are defined as ‘horror-laced science fiction and dark fantasy’, some verging on the more realistic end of the spectrum, others more supernatural in their designs. Reflecting on this as I write these words and scanning down the list of stories, I find myself nodding in agreement with this assessment. It also occurs to me that nearly all of them would make terrific episodes for The Outer Limits or X-Files, two of my favourite shows.

Each story shows humanities struggle against the odds when the natural order of things is turned upside down. As a consequence, there are few happy endings here. Fans of unhappy endings or at best pyrrhic ones will feel right at home with Equilibrium Overturned.

A brief summary of the stories:

The Final Testimony of Molly Ryder by Jeff Hemenway, is a great start to the anthology and deals with crime, punishment and the ability of the mind to meld with another’s. 

Amnion by John Everson, illustrates the dangers of questing after youth when the rest of the world might not be ready for such a thing.

Martial Law by JG Faherty, depicts a strange parade that threatens to topple the biggest organisations of power in the modern world.

Through the Ghostlands by Rose Blackthorn, is a haunting tale of desolation and lives stopped in mid-flow.

The Collected Syliva, Volumes 1 to 1388 by Geoffrey W. Cole, tells the tale of a futuristic couple that are on the search for their new home.

Perfect Soldiers by S.G. Larner, describes the desperate plight of humanity as an evil force threatens to invade the world, the only resistance being found in horrible acts of our own.

Wombie by Martin Slag, is a naturalistic tale that merges nature with other designs that result in nothing but horror for one group of people.

No-Man’s Land by Roger Jackson, a tale of the horrors of war made worse by the unwholesome practices of elements in the trenches.

The Alamo Incident: From The Chronicles of Timaeus Shields by Sean Eads, the tale of a man sent to investigate the force that has been killing soldiers left right and center at the Alamo. The truth is far worse than history led us to believe.

The Butcher of Gad Street by Stephen T. Vessels, shows the forces of good and evil in direct conflict as the barometer of human mood and deed swings dangerously into the red.

Queen of Thermodynamic Equilibrium by Josh R. Vogt, depicts deep space and a future where death has almost been eradicated. This doesn’t please everyone however...

Compartmental by Jay Caselberg, what begins as a train journey and a reflection on the way the human mind files away experience dissolves into a deep tale that reveals what we might truly be looking for.

This is not a Horror Story by Tim Waggoner, a strange trip to the DMV turns into a fight for survival.

Sunrise by Tony Knighton, shows the health of an ailing child failing as the world around him begins to decay and slip from humanities grasp.

All very good stories, but as with anything, a handful struck me harder than others. I think my favourite was Queen of Thermodynamic Equilibrium, as it was set in a pure space environment with all manner of technology and other doodads around it. It also achieved some great friction as science and religion clashed (as is usually the way).

The Final Testimony of Molly Ryder is my second favourite. I have always been interested in other realities, whether virtual, parallel or whatever. The story also kept me guessing until the end which is another thumbs up from me.

Finally I would choose The Alamo Incident: From The Chronicles of Timaeus Shields as another personal favourite. I am not big on American history and don’t much care for it in the scheme of things. I couldn’t help finding the mixture of the mundane gritty setting with the strangeness of what is happening intoxicating however.

I would say that I didn’t dislike any of the stories but some I felt a little bit indifferent to. Just personal preference at the end of the day. 

I give Equilibrium Overturned 4/5. A satisfying and dark read, high in strangeness and grim situations but not enough to tickle my horror gland fully. Visit the Grey Matter Press site here for more information.

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