Summary
Selfie from Hell serves nothing of interest and displays zero imagination.
During one moment in Selfie from Hell, Hannah ferociously tries to enter the dark web with pulsating music playing in the background. When she reaches a website, an error message appears which is accompanied by a sudden horror beat in the music. This scene demonstrated that the people behind Selfie from Hell had little idea of what they were trying to achieve, because this scene was blatantly designed to not be scary.
I guess I should play fair with a film titled Selfie from Hell, but it is difficult to excuse a movie that embodies nothingness. The premise orbits the idea that Hannah’s cousin, who is a vlogger, has been caught up with a mysterious entity from the dark web, and taking selfies triggers this “thing” that comes after you. I wish I knew what was really going on but it is glaringly obvious that the writers of this independent horror just wanted to create a movie that makes selfies important.
It’s understandable that most horror movies allow the mystery the take over, leaving the cause of the unfortunate events vague and non-descriptive, with little exposition, but Selfie from Hell does not even attempt to make the story remotely interesting. It’s just Hannah figuring out technology and feeling jumpy at every given occasion, and her cousin slowly dying on her bed. Selfie from Hell is a lazy horror movie that displays zero imagination from the creators.
The last time I experienced such a watery story from the horror genre was The Open House, but at least in that joyless movie, I could observe if the 13 Reasons Why star Dylan Minnette has any depth (he doesn’t). Selfie from Hell ponders the concept of a dangerous consequence from taking a selfie, whilst at the same time links this idea to creepy chat rooms in the dark web. The story is useless and markedly defines our era, where we try to force every cultural phenomenon into a movie. Selfies are okay but keep them on Instagram.
