[Film Review] Fantasia Film Festival 2021 - #Blue_Whale

In 2015, the Blue Whale Challenge became worldwide news when a string of young suicides were linked to the online game. Originating in Russia, the challenge psychologically provoked children and teenagers to record themselves taking on a series of self-destructive tasks, each increasing in threat and concluding with suicide. The name is derived from the phenomenon that blue whales beach themselves to die in an act of suicide.

Anna Zaytseva’s directorial debut #Blue_Whale follows teenager Dana (Anna Potebnya) as she’s sucked into the world of the online death cult when her sister Yulya walks in front of a train and ends her own life. Feeling devastated and confused, Dana logs into Yuliya’s laptop and, with the help of her best friend, begins to investigate what really happened and who is to blame. What follows next is 90 minutes of pure adrenaline.

#Blue_Whale wastes no time introducing us to the volatile relationship between Dana and her mother, who clearly holds some resentment towards her for not getting along with Yulya when she was alive. As each task escalates, so does Dana’s paranoia and need to discover the truth, no matter the consequences. It’s clear she feels that her mother blames her for her sisters suicide, and the people she begins to interact with online use that to their advantage to manipulate her into carrying out the extreme.

Potebnya gives a captivating performance, her desperation as palpable as her naivety. She is sharp tongued, hard-headed and witty, but at no point do you forget that she is just an adolescent – acting on instinct and inexperience. It’s a frustrating watch as you witness her being sucked in by the lies of these online predators and falling into the same traps as many before her. In her interactions with those around her, we also begin to see her more caring and endearing side, which only compels you to root for her even more.

#Blue_Whale is like a rollercoaster that never slows down. The twists and turns around every corner will have you holding on for dear life, and even when you can see some of them coming, they still manage to make your stomach flip with anticipation and a perverse joy. From the very first frame, right up until the closing minutes, I was absolutely on the edge of my seat, eager to see where the story would take me.

Fans of previous screen life-storytelling films Searching and the Unfriended series will recognise the influence of co-producer Timur Bekmambetov. The way in which the characters use their personal devices is convincing, unlike in a lot of found footage films where it’s clear that in reality the characters would have given up filming pretty early on in the story. It’s a particularly harrowing watch considering that most of us have spent the last year on Zoom calls, and so have a whole generation of kids. 

There are plenty of online safety warnings to be found here which we (horror/thriller fans) have seen successfully done before in films like Hard Candy and Megan is Missing, but #Blue_Whale has something different. It’s delivered like an action film, with no time to stop and catch your breath, and because the characters in peril are all so young and easily influenced, you feel almost as helpless as they seem to. 

As Dana gets closer and closer to the truth of who is behind her screen, more and more disturbing secrets are uncovered resulting in a grim conclusion. But, for a film with such dark themes as suicide, self-harm and terminal illness, #Blue_Whale sure is a hell of a lot of fun! 

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