Clickbait

Clickbait is a 2018 social satire horror film directed by Sophia Cacciola and Michael J. Epstein. The film is an exploration of the pressures on people to have performative identities and to seek popularity. The film satirizes not only social media, but the way in which social media is used to sell advertising for mundane products, specifically the invented radioactive toaster pastry, Toot Strudels. The film won the award for "Best Feature" at the Starburst 2019 Fantasy Film Awards. Plot A popular vlogger, Bailey, is upset when she loses her status on vlogging site, str33ker.com, to a competing creator who is diagnosed with cancer. When Bailey starts getting stalked, her popularity rises again, and she is not so eager to have the crime solved. With incompetent police detective Dobson assigned to the case, the culprit will probably not be caught. Description Daniel XIII of Horror Fuel says that Clickbait is, "a horror comedy that takes the horror part seriously, along with a heaping helpin' of surreal visuals, pointed commentary, and toaster pastries." Andrew Marshall of Starburst noted the film's audience-focused themes calling the film, "a scathing observation of the habits of the internet age, Clickbait asks us to take a hard look at our online viewing habits and the true reasons for our enjoyment of the darker things that appeal to us, and demands we truly consider the kinds of things we might be inadvertently complicit in."