j* Movie Reviews 2019

Assassination Nation (2018)

I love the way this takes the internet and turns it out... in Salem.

I spend a lot of time imagining the internet as a bunch of people running around with pitchforks looking for reasons to stab others. And this really manages to capture that vibe perfectly. It sets itself up in suburban Salem with more than just nod to the concepts of the witch trials. It kind of asks us to think about how whack that was, and how perfectly whack we are now, as an internet lynch mob.

We have our excellent girl squad of four - although we're never clear exactly where they rank in the high school bitch-fest. We do know they love some short-shorts, which is no surprise given that one of them is Suki Waterhouse (which is why this film popped up on my radar - I'm a legit Suki-film stalker). And no-one does short-shorts quite like Suki does short-shorts. These girls are into your standard high school things; boys, sexting, gossiping, hanging with their homies.

But then the leaks start. First with a politician, then the principal, then the hacker comes for half of Salem and releases all their data, selfies, sex-tapes, web-history. The truth is suddenly out there. The mob mobilises and jumps to infinite conclusions. There's suicide, there's violence, there's rapey bits, a literal lynching...

To be fair the movie opens with a long and excellent list of trigger warnings. I found it maybe over-promised somewhat with this list. I mean it does add up, but it's not quite as full on as The Purge/s. It has been described as "Mean Girls meets The Purge", but I'd throw in a dash of Neon Demon suspense and glory for good measure. Actually it might be more Jawbreaker or Wild Things than Mean Girls. You should know you're heading into one of those dark and fairly sordid type high school flicks.

And it's pretty amazing. The way the realised internet mobs hide behind their masks, how it speaks of the way so many people, particularly women get hassled online. The way that it would be super-horrific if it crossed over to real life even though it sometimes does. If you've ever been a girl hassled on the net, or watched it happening to a female leader you follow, this film will bring a fair load of catharsis. If you love a violent girl uprising, buckle up for a moderate amount of gore and some killer matching trench-coats. But first you have to travel down the deep dark wormhole of somewhat dark experiences.

You can't kill all of us.

J* gives it 5 stars.

PS. The ending was amazing. Like the first ending was powerful and good and excellent, and then the second ending was the reality-bitch-slap that you needed to remind you that this stuff is way too real. Then the out-credits are just weird.