#No_Filter (No Filter) (2022) Movie Review – Horror on Tubi

Welcome to Knockout Horror. Today we are reviewing No Filter from 2022. As you might know, but probably don’t. We recently wrapped up a month of watching nothing but low budget horror on free streaming service Tubi. In fact, a couple of days ago I released an article summarising our experience. You should check it out – Low Budget Horror Movies on Tubi – The Good, The Average and The Fugly.

So you might be wondering, why the hell does this movie have the Horror on Tubi sub-title? Well, it’s quite simple. Because it is a horror movie that you can find on Tubi. I have sort of accepted the fact that I am going to be reviewing stuff on Tubi fairly frequently for the foreseeable future. It seems like every time I look for a movie, they are promoting a new Tubi original. Meaning I am kind of trapped in a loop of perpetually reviewing stuff from there. Despite the fact that most of them are pretty awful.

And Today’s Movie is No Different!

So Cabin Girl was okay. Not fantastic but actually watchable. Today’s movie, #No_Filter, which is a terrible title by the way, is not. Tubi are putting out some absolute crap when it comes to their originals. Following the story of popular social media influencer AnnaWithA-A. Starting a trend among her followers and school friends of sharing scary prank videos. Before quickly realising that the violence and carnage has become all too real.

No Filter acts as something of a supernatural horror movie that blurs the lines between what’s real and what isn’t real. I am assuming the writer is attempting to make a point about what you see online being different from what you see in person. But, I don’t think that message really gets across.

I am going to do a fair bit of complaining here. I think this movie is pretty lacklustre, to be honest. But can we start with the username of our protagonist “Anna_withaA”? This bugged me for the entire movie. Is there a way to spell Anna that doesn’t involve the letter A? Is this a result of the French speaking director and writer not realising how we pronounce the name Hannah in English? Shouldn’t it be “Anna_withanA?”. I don’t know but I hated it. In a lot of ways, it is the perfect opening to some of this movie’s problems. 

Lost in Translation

For one, this is very clearly a script written and edited by non-native English speakers. It is basic beyond belief and much of the dialogue feels extremely awkward. Rarely flowing naturally and never feeling particularly organic. This isn’t helped by a group of non-American actors putting on fake American accents throughout. Why is this such a thing in horror? I don’t get it. Either hire actors from the US or set the movie elsewhere.

There appears to be a mix of English, French and Belgian actors here. All doing their very best to sound absolutely nothing like an actual resident of the USA. It’s extremely bad. Hannah Mciver, as Anna, does the best job but still slips up often. With the rest of the cast falling at nearly every hurdle. Jasmine Daoud deserves special mention for how bad her accent sounds. Undermining every scene she is in. I have no clue why this is a thing but it happens so often. So many horror movies are filmed in other parts of the world but set in the USA.

A Slightly More Relevant Social Media Theme

No Filter plays out in a similar way to the critically panned Look Away. Only, dressing things up a bit with a Social Media Influencer back story and a little more ambiguity as to the source of the horror. As I have mentioned tons. Social Media Influencers are a hot topic in horror at the moment. With writers frequently using them as a way to relate to the viewer. Why not check out our recent list about the subject – 10 Social Media Influencer Horror Movies – Dying for Likes? It’s looking like I will be putting together a part 2 of that list with all of the social media influencer themed movies I am covering lately.

The influencer stuff here is significantly more relevant to the plot than it is in Cabin Girl. But that doesn’t make it any more interesting. Anna is not particularly believable as a Social Media Personality. Bringing no unique qualities or any particularly interesting brand of pep to her viewers. Just vlogging mundane shit that I imagine most people will scroll straight past on their platform of choice.

Horror movies never manage to nail just what it is that makes these people so popular. They never manage to cast actors with a unique look or a certain “je ne sais quoi” that actually makes them believable. It doesn’t help that Hannah Mciver looks significantly older than her character’s quoted age of 18. Making it even more difficult to buy her as a social media hit.

Still it is what it is. Prepare yourself for all the usual crap you find in these movies. Messages from comment sections popping up on screen. Characters constantly disrupting the flow to take selfies. Girls arguing over who is more popular. References to followers and whatnot. It’s starting to feel a bit old, isn’t it? Or is it actually me that is starting to feel a bit old? I don’t know.

Boring Horror Tropes

The horror comes by way of digging blindly into the endless bucket of post 2000s horror tropes. Scary text messages sent by an unknown person. Videos shared of people being murdered. Social Media posts that may or may not be pranks. Reflections in the mirror acting suspiciously. It’s all ultra familiar and it has all been done before. Unfortunately, for many of its scares, No Filter really drops the ball. Feeling incredibly silly in parts thanks to some terrible visuals. No Filter is guilty of a number of poorly conceived scares that end up looking ridiculous rather than creepy. One, in particular, that features a photo of Anna, with her family, coming to life. Is nothing short of pure comedy gold.

The way No Filter delivers the scares feels extremely messy. It is almost confused. As if the writer was heading one way with the story before deciding to go another. There is a distinctly disordered feeling to the way things play out. Leading to the amp up in severity, seemingly, coming from nowhere. And the explanation for events feeling unsatisfying and rather cobbled together, too. 

We get a vague explanation for why the shit hits the fan. But, beyond that, little else. Just an excuse for mayhem and a fair bit of gore. On the positive side, No Filter does feature some fairly satisfying kills. There is a little bit of body horror here, as well, that doesn’t look great but could provoke a few moments of teeth gritting. There is, also, a decent helping of suspense towards the latter stages of the movie. And a couple of satisfying scenes of Hannah Mciver clearly enjoying herself being an absolute lunatic. Things pick up a bit but it feels a bit too little a bit too late.

A Satisfactory Sleepover Horror

I think many of the elements of No Filter that don’t work are purely down to target audience. This almost feels like a “My first sleepover horror”. It has a lot of stuff that younger people will relate to. The violence can be comedic at times and there is a distinct feeling that this movie is aimed at teens. It has all the elements of a horror made purely to provoke reactions. Be they grimaces or cries of “look out behind you”. It’s all pretty basic stuff and would fit fairly well in the middle of a rotation of horror movies and comedies.

For anyone looking for something to really get their teeth into. This just isn’t it. No Filter just doesn’t have a tremendous amount to offer outside of overly familiar horror tropes and obnoxious social media related stuff. It goes off in a number of directions that don’t work or, indeed, don’t go anywhere. It seems a bit lost at times and it borrows fairly heavily from other similar movies. If you are under 20 and looking for an easy horror, though, this may be for you. It helps that there are a couple of genuinely funny, low brow, laughs here and there.

Acting is Mixed

This movie suffers in a fairly big way for its multi-national cast being forced to use American accents. Barely anyone manages it successfully. I complained about this with Shark Bait and a few other movies that do the same. It almost never works. Someone will slip up. I noticed straight away with No Filter. Aside from that, performances are a bit mixed. Hannah Mciver obviously had fun here. She isn’t very believable as a social media personality. Seeming to lack any real kind of pep and energy. Her accent slips fairly frequently as well but she does a good job for the most part. She gets better as the movie goes on.

Jasmine Daoud, as Anna’s friend Lauren, struggles mightily with her accent. It frequently slips making her sound like she is from the middle of nowhere. This really undermines her performance at times. She is fine for the most part, though. One of few actually American actors in the film; I enjoyed Janis Ahern as Susan. She really made me laugh in a super brief role. Samuel Van der Zwalmen is also okay in another brief role as influencer Scare_Scott. Priya Blackburn, as Mina, seemed to have more to offer than her role afforded. I would have liked to have seen more of her. Side characters are all rather forgettable. 

The actors here really suffer from the writing which is extremely basic and not at all organic. Michael Dupret has a tendency to have his characters repeating themselves which makes them sound pretty gormless and stupid, to be honest. Direction is okay. I think No_Filter runs way too long. The beginning stages are massively padded. There isn’t much meat on this story and much of what happens is without consequence. The social media elements are done fairly similarly to most movies like this and do get annoying after awhile. Cinematography is generally fine, though. No_Filter doesn’t feel particularly budget.

Final Thoughts and Score

#No_Filter is just another Social Media Influencer Horror movie. It doesn’t do anything new, it isn’t particularly interesting and it isn’t scary. Characters are rather two dimensional and a bit annoying. The writing is bad and the plot is a bit silly at times. There just aren’t many reasons to subscribe and follow. There are a couple of moments that might make you laugh. Some of the kills are decent, there is a small amount of tension in the latter stages and some body horror is definitely welcome. But, beyond that, this is a very run of the mill horror movie. Young people may really enjoy it as a sleepover horror. Everyone else will be left wanting more.

We just got done summarising our Low Budget Horror on Tubi feature so why not give that a look before you go? I have linked some actually decent Social Media Influencer horror movies below if that is your thing. You can also take a look at more Horror Movie Reviews, a few of our Horror Movie Lists or even catch up on our ridiculously long Horror Ending Explained articles. I update tons and I don’t put out fluff. Just stuff you can grab a coffee and sit for a few minutes reading. I would love for you to stick around. Thanks for reading!