The symbiosis of Hayes, Foglemanis, and writer Paul Neafcy, results in this brilliantly crafted psychological thriller that peaks with its show-down climax in the final episode.
Filmed as if it were a YouTube video, we are constantly aware that these types of people, and these types of videos, do exist online today and despite the acknowledgement of their immorality they rack up hundreds upon thousands of ‘likes’. Leaning into the camera, the white ring light reflecting in his eyes, it’s hard to not find enjoyment in his destructive ways. Everything that we see is filmed by Jasper, from his own vlog camera or GoPros he’s stealthily set-up, forcing the audience to get up close and personal with his growingly psychopathic character. Maybe malicious intent is exactly what he needs? Fogelmanis’ visceral performance is made all the more compelling through Hayes’ deliberate use of only POV shots. With each one Jasper takes a step down a criminal road at first the dire consequences of such pranks are arguably unforeseen and unintended, but his viewers are hungry and his subscriber count is rising. “SCARY CLOWN PRANK” becomes “KIDNAP PRANK” becomes “BUS BOMBER PRANK”. These following interactions with fans and family alike quickly descend down a gloriously creepy route as Jasper slowly loses his grip on reality – which, arguably, he never had to begin with. “The JazzPrankers are going to love you”, he says to Carla (Rebecca Stone), his first fan turned co-host, and with those words his character is laid out it’s all about the views, nothing about the people. He pushes them to get involved, persuades them to go too far and pries on their support when things don’t go his way. And they’re ultimately expendable because of that biased trust. There’s a constant awareness that, though Jasper is meeting these people for the first time, there’s already a one-sided connection between them due the nature of YouTube: whilst they see Jasper as a friend, to him they’re fans.
#PRANK ME NOT.COM SERIAL#
What should be a cheery start to the show, and Jasper’s new series, is welcomingly ominous as he promises: “I’m coming for ya’”.Īs Jasper gets out into the real world you see a subversion of the familiar relationships you might expect from a serial like this develop. Feeling squashed by the pressures of his family and his need to entertain his growing fanbase Jasper decides to get out, meet real people, and prank them good to the next level.
Jasper has just hit 100,000 subscribers on his channel ‘Jazz Pranks’ where he’s known for his over-the-top pranks aimed at his sister Sienna (Angharad George-Carey). “What’s up JazzPrankers!” It’s this intro, one that isn’t at all far from real YouTube videos, that opens the show and introduces us to our anti-hero Jasper ‘Jazz’ Perkins (Corey Fogelmanis). However, with a handful of screen-based films coming to cinemas this year – namely, Aneesh Chaganty’s ‘Searching’ and Stephen Susco’s ‘Unfriended: The Dark Net’ – it’s evident that technology is moving ever closer to the realm of horrors, and Hayes captures this movement expertly.
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Launched on the recently collapsed US Subscription Video on Demand service Fullscreen in September last year this deliciously dark series now, in Hayes’ own words, ‘no longer exists’. 0 #DirectedByWomen REVIEW- Prank Me: When YouTube turns Dark-Web, Hazel Hayes’ non-existent series Prank Me is a psychological thriller to beholdĪs a filmmaker first and a YouTuber second, it’s no surprise that Hazel Hayes, director of the 8 part online series Prank Me, not only manages to find the pulse of society’s technological fears but squeezes it almost to bursting when pranks go wrong and people dare to go to the extreme for that “like, comment, subscribe”, criminal paths are trodden all in the name of entertainment.
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