The horrors of social media fame are laid bare in the new film LEXI. Written by Victoria Vertuga, and Eric Williford, while directed and starring Vertuga as the title character LEXI, is an interesting if not an entirely successful horror film. Part found footage, part Netflix docuseries, the movie focuses on social media star Laughing Lexi who has just purchased a new home. Soon enough strange things begin happening. Talking head interviews attempt to explain the mysterious happenings while peers in the industry speculate on why Lexi might have chosen the path she did… if it was a choice. What we get is a found footage/doc hybrid that respects the technical rules while ultimately failing to pay anything off.

We open on social media influencer and YouTube life coach LEXI as she is scampering around her home prior to her disappearance. We then cut to Mel (Felisha Michelle Cacho) who has reached out to the police after not hearing from Lexi in a few days. all of this is told through surveillance and body cam footage further enhancing the actual “found” part of found footage. What happened to Lexi after she purchased her new home? Our best tools are speculation from “experts”, recollection from “peers”, and actual footage. Aping the best true crime true-crime fodder, we follow Lexi’s descent from social media icon to supposed pariah. While filming her spot-on inspirational videos we watch her slow disintegration into madness at the hands of an unseen force. Is that force in her home or is it the vitriol spewing from her viewers?

Director Vertuga admirably stays true to the constraints of her chosen method. The problem is that, well, we need a payoff. Ultimately the vision is so true that we are never given the release that the film has been building to. That is exactly what any other true crime doc might offer. Ultimately this is a read of social media celebrities, the way they make their living, and how consumers voraciously digest content with little to no appreciation.  I certainly enjoyed LEXI, but it was more an exploration of journalistic merit than artistic accomplishment.

LEXI is a technically sound piece of horror that shackles itself to a strict concept with mixed results. This is good work, just not the most fulfilling.

6 out of 10