A college student who will do just about anything for Internet fame is kidnapped by a fan, and her reluctant roommate is the only one who can save her in this horror satire of popularity culture.

People will do anything to be famous. They will post videos that show of their skills while some others upload videos of themselves doing silly things. Some will try to speak out their minds for justice while some others will speak out loud just to be relevant. The flashier and the louder is the better. Every person that tries this has a different motive to do so. But, they will all make the spectators ask themselves “what for if you’re only ever going to be internet-famous.”

In Clickbait (2019) we follow Bailey (Amanda Colby Stewart) while she struggles to become #1 on a streaming website called Str33ker. Unfortunately for Bailey, there is another girl getting more viewers by the minute and debunking her from her spot. Bailey promised herself and her friend, Emma (Brandi Aguilar), to become relevant again on Str33ker. Strangely, Bailey does become relevant but not on her own, but by a stalker who starts recording her. They must find out who’s the stalker before he does something worse.

To be honest, you can guess everything that’s going to happen in the end of the film by only watching the first ten minutes. After that it’s just filler to fall under the category of motion picture instead of short film. The single-cut introduction and the moments when Bailey fights with her friend are the only worthy scenes that add value to the production.

Clickbait tries to bring something fresh by removing things from the satire formula. Sadly, it fails to do so. This doesn’t mean that the film is terrible. It’s still enjoyable if you allow yourself to pass the exaggerated acting by many of the poorly profiled characters; there are so many and no reason at all for them to be there. The only well-established character is Bailey, and it better had been that way or else everything might have gone to hell; but it could also be that the actress was the only one natural enough to go beyond the director’s idea.

It has interesting points that shows on raw how obsessed we are with influencers and social media experts, which the latter are self-proclaimed since there’s no one handing official titles for it. We are hooked on seeing what others do, feel, say and watch. One of the funny things from the film is the overexposure of a fake pastry brand that endorses these so-called internet celebrities: during the film, the plot gets interrupted to play an ad for it. It gets to a ridiculous point that felt very real; internet celebrities promoting random stuff that probably nobody needs but everybody wants.

As one might guess by now, there’s nothing new coming from Clickbait. Whatever the writers and director tried to portray, it’s been said and done before this film. For example, acclaimed TV series Black Mirror has done social commentaries on how big being an influencer and being liked is more important, above all things in life. There’s a specific episode that plots this and even challenges the future proposing your social status as a currency. But, even if it doesn’t bring much, it gets three stars for effort.

Clickbait does the honors to its title; it’s just click-bait. You might get hyped by watching a saturated trailer that promises a murder mystery with some indie horror mixed with comedy, but it only pulls together one thing: people will do anything to be famous.