Exploited is a 2022 American thriller film that follows a college freshman who becomes obsessed with a missing male webcam model. He and his friends are subsequently terrorised by a voyeuristic hacker. The movie explores real-world fears such as privacy and camming.
Directed by actor-turned-filmmaker Jon Abrahams (Clover) from a screenplay co-written by co-producers Carl Moellenberg and Anthony DelNegro. Also produced by Shane O’Brien, Zach O’Brien and Skyler Stucky.
The movie features Sierra McCormick (We Need to Do Something; VFW; The Vast of Night; Some Kind of Hate), Makenzie Vega (InstaPsycho; Fender Bender; Saw), Will Peltz (InstaPsycho; Unfriended; The Collection), Leah Pipes (Red Wedding; The Devil’s Hand), Spencer List, Hannah Rose May (The Recall; Twisted Sisters), Jordan Ver Hoeve (666: Teen Warlock), Major Dodge, Colin Bates, Steven A. Miller, Nicholas David King, Katherine Morgan, Kayla Harrity, Andrew Matthew Welch, Eric Demont, Karl Licht, Owsley Robinson and Kyle Wallen.
Plot:
As freshman Brian (Jordan Ver Hoeve) checks into his dorm room, he discovers a thumb drive that includes files of a former student dorm resident and a webcam model interacting with clients. He is shocked to discover that the last webcam session ends in what may be a murder.
Brian soon becomes obsessed with unravelling the story, but his quest becomes complicated when he falls for his roommate, who is already taken. The mysterious disappearance of the webcam model takes on a dangerous voyeuristic tone when the love triangle finds their lives being manipulated and blackmailed…
Reviews:
“Where Exploited does stumble is with main character Brian who never really feels like the lead in his own story, and often it is left to side characters to prop him up. Having said this, his roommate Jeremy’s story becomes the more compelling and again while not fully rounded, it does pose some big questions.” Bloody Flicks
“By the time Exploited is over, I can understand what it’s going for, a sex-positive horror slasher set amongst college students all exploring their sexuality, but the majority of the characters are poorly written and the rest of poorly acted, save for maybe Will Peltz as Brian’s brother Jacob who gives a different flavor to his scenes and makes it a bit more enjoyable.” Film Gate Reviews
“Where else in thrillers there is a figure to identify with, with whom the audience enters the story, here you never know who you will find the most terrifying from this horror cabinet. Admittedly, a voyeuristic LGBT webcam mystery thriller is something else. You certainly can’t blame Abrahams for delivering something off the shelf. But different doesn’t mean good. It doesn’t even mean average here.” 2 out of 10, Film Rezensionen [translated from German]
“There’s something to be said for tilting the hetero world of this genre, but Exploited has a yuckiness to it, which is related to a nasty ageist and (arguably) misogynist final twist.” 1 out of 5, The Guardian
“The mystery doesn’t entirely play fair, not that it’s interesting enough to entice one into sticking with this. The acting is pretty bad, and there’s a general unpleasantness to the proceedings that makes the film a video equivalent chastity belt.” 1 out of 4, Movie Nation
“It doesn’t really work as either a slasher or a whodunit, but there is fun to be had with Exploited if you approach it in the right frame of mind (ie very drunk or very stoned). Much of the unintentional humour comes from how shoddy the writing is, particularly a scene where a victim of a horrific crime opens up about what they’ve been subjected to…” The Movie Waffler
” …a twisty thriller that constantly has you guessing who is on the level and who is playing some kind of game or another before everything hits the fan in the last act. And then you really need to be paying attention as revelations along with one laugh-out-loud switch up and one of the film’s few gore effects, start getting tossed at the viewer. By the end, Exploited goes into territory most mainstream films wouldn’t dare to go into…” 4 out of 5, Voices from the Balcony
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