★★★★ out of ★★★★★
🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 for intensity and animal cruelty
Directed by Philip Barantini
Harri (Chaneil Kular) is a regular guy living in London with his girlfriend Chloe (Lauren Ajufo) who is getting ready to head out of town to dog-sit at his parent’s estate in the country. As he is riding on the train leaving London, his and the other passenger’s phones receive alerts that there has been a fatal bombing at the very same station they just left, and police are looking for the suspect.
Harri feels lucky to have barely escaped such a close call, but his luck runs out when his picture is posted on social media as the bombing suspect and he has to fight for his life to defend himself against the online (and actual IRL) mob. Accused deftly demonstrates the power and unstoppable momentum of a social media witch hunt, where rumors balloon into mob justice.
Accused is a white knuckle, home invasion thrill ride that grabs you early and never lets you go. Everything about this film is done right from the pacing to the fantastic sound design and the award-worthy performance from Chaneil Kular. It is frighteningly easy to imagine this situation unfolding in real life. The plausibility of this event is exactly what makes this film scarier than anything supernatural that goes bump in the night.
An overlay on the plausibility is that Harri is such a likable young man, his parents are equally endearing, and the family dog Flynn is such a good boy. By contrast, the blind anger and xenophobia of the internet mob are fearsome to behold. It takes Harri a while to comprehend how much danger he is in, but the audience can sense the threat closing in, making the whole situation a gut-wrenching ordeal.
Accused held its world premiere at the Overlook Film Festival. Keep your eye on The Scariest Things for updates about when and where to see this film.