More so than ever before, we live in an age of misinformation. Thanks to deepfake technology and deceptive social media algorithms, it’s becoming more and more difficult to distinguish fantasy from reality as people are manipulated into believing things that are simply not true. It’s a wonder that deepfakes haven’t made their way into more genre films, but writer/director Chris Marrs Piliero‘s Appofeniacs is here to get the job done, serving as a cautionary tale for our current times that’s as thrilling as it is horrifying with its real-world implications.
Appofeniacs is an ensemble piece told through a series of interwoven vignettes, but the character at the center of it all is Duke (Aaron Holiday), a troubled, paranoid young man who goes on a frenzy of deepfake creations, using them to turn people against anyone who even slightly pisses him off. Other times, he just wants to be an agent of chaos and watch the world burn, which means that anyone and everyone is a target.
From the very first scene, Piliero establishes a sense of unpredictability as we witness, out of context, James (Chad Addison) murder his girlfriend Ali (Scarlet DeMeo) because he suspects infidelity. From there, we’re introduced to cosplayer Poppy (Simran Jehani), who takes an Uber with driver Tim (Will Brandt) to a secluded cabin where her friends Chase (Amogh Kapoor) and Stoletto (Massi Pregoni) are marveling over a new shield replica they purchased from famed cosplay costume designer Clinto Binto (Sean Gunn), known for making authentic replicas of anime weapons. On the periphery of all this is Cedrick (Jermaine Fowler, The Blackening), who is grappling with the ethics of deepfake technology, and Lazzy (Paige Searcy), who has an unfortunate confrontation with Duke over the necessity of tipping baristas (he’s a petty fucker, that one).
Best known for his music videos for pop stars like Britney Spears, Ariana Grande and Kesha, Piliero delivers a remarkably confident feature debut that never threatens to buckle under the pressure of all the plates it’s spinning. Appofeniacs is a delightful puzzle of a film, shifting gears several times as character connections are slowly revealed over the course of its 90-minute runtime (think Pulp Fiction for the digital age), with Piliero keeping viewers on their toes as he ratchets up the tension with each new revelation.
Simran Jehani as Poppy in Appofeniacs
The film’s structure means that most characters don’t have enough time to be fully fleshed out before they exit the film in one way or another, but Searcy makes the strongest impression, imbuing Lazzy with a down-to-earth relatability that endears. Holiday intentionally irks as the tweaky Duke, and Gunn is also having a blast in his smaller role as the eccentric Clinto Binto. The character actor fits right in with some of the films more heightened elements.
Thematically, Appofeniacs doesn’t have much to say other than “deepfakes bad” and “people dumb.” It isn’t necessarily aiming to be a profound commentary, satisfied with acting as a cautionary “what if” tale whose stakes keep escalating with each passing scene. Real-world politics are non-existent here, with Piliero focusing on more general concepts to get his point across. Even if Appofeniacs’ commentary isn’t as deep as one would like, Piliero’s script is at least able to capture the real-life anxieties surrounding race relations, toxic masculinity and fragile male egos to great effect.
Piliero builds suspense not with chase sequences or kill scenes (though there are plenty of those), but simply with our daily interactions with strangers. Director of photography Adam Leene relies mostly on the slow zoom to create a sense of unease, especially in one of the more gripping sequences that sees Lazzy hesitate a Black man’s presence in the parking lot of her workplace after a deepfake video of her spouting racial slurs is posted on Reddit. Appofeniacs flips the script on the question of how well you really know the person standing next to you. Rather, what do they think they know about you? Piliero gets a lot of mileage out of sequences like this, turning Appofeniacs into a simmering kettle of distrust that eventually boils over in an orgy of blood so satisfying that it needs to be seen with a crowd.
Appofeniacs is a pleasant surprise and a strong debut for Piliero, even if it does fall into the occasional style-over-substance trapping. It nails the thrills, though, and weaves the narrative threads together with enough confidence to make Piliero a creator to look out for.
Appofeniacs made its North American premiere at Fantastic Fest. No release date has been set.
