The Age of Influencers is happening in Hollywood: Some content creators are making their own films and securing theater agreements for big screen debuts; others are getting picked up for major studio deals to write and direct films like Talk to Me and the upcoming backrooms movie. And yet more are sourced for acting roles. That’s the case with Skillhouse, which released in some AMC and Regal theaters today and whose headliners are TikToker Bryce Hall and Viner-turned-Instagrammer/YouTuber/TikToker Hannah Stocking.
Filmed at the Los Angeles mansion where Hall’s TikTok group, the Sway House, lived in 2020, Skillhouse doesn’t just star influencers. It’s about them, too: Its plot follows ten content creators kidnapped by a killer who forces them to compete in social media challenges.
This is where the film’s buzzy tagline–“Clout is life”–comes into play. Because if Hall, Stockton, and their fellow captive creators don’t get enough likes and follows, it’s game over.
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If you know horror movies, you won’t be surprised to hear Skillhouse was directed by one of the Saw franchise writers, Josh Stolberg. (For the uninitiated, Skillhouse‘s storyline is very Saw-esque, with the whole kidnapping/challenge completion/axed-if-you-fail angle.)
“When you say watch a movie these days, you’re not thinking about the big screen. When my kids say ‘movie,’ it might be on their phone,” Stolberg told The Information. “There will be a much more rapid merge of this so that there’s less difference between television, movies and social media. It’s all going to come together in some way.”
But Skillhouse‘s main characters aren’t the only ones accused of being clout-chasers in this tale. The movie was produced by former Relativity Media co-founder/CEO Ryan Kavanaugh through his project GenTV, a studio and streaming platform that plans to carve its niche by making movies starring content creators. For Skillhouse, its first film, GenTV also tapped mainstream celeb 50 Cent, and has prominently marketed the film using his name and image. A pay-to-publish piece at USA Today, for example, said that together, Kavanaugh and 50 Cent used Skillhouse to “set a new standard for how stories can be told and consumed.”
50 Cent doesn’t seem to agree. In April, he filed a $5 million suit against GenTV, saying he never signed a contract to appear in the film, was never paid for his work, and that by releasing Skillhouse, GenTV is infringing on his trademark and engaging in unfair competition against his own streaming service, 50 Cent Action.
The suit alleges GenTV “plan[s] not only to steal [50 Cent’s] reputation and goodwill amongst his millions of fans to boost their own film, but also to use that film to unfairly compete with [his] other business ventures.”
“Obviously,” it added, “Jackson never would have agreed to allow his intellectual property to be used in such a manner.”
50 Cent’s lawyer asked for a preliminary injunction to keep Skillhouse from releasing in theaters, but that request was denied. The rest of the suit is ongoing.
Hall commented on the case, claiming “we beat [50 Cent] in court” and adding that the rapper was “extremely nice” on set. “Obviously we had some bumps in the road with 50, but it was a really fun experience and I’d love to continue,” he said.
GenTV doesn’t appear to have released a public statement. Kavanaugh is also no stranger to legal issues. Before founding Relativity Media, he ran a short-lived venture capital firm, and was accused of parlaying it into a kind of Ponzi scheme. He was also sued over the bankruptcy of Relativity and accused of “a scheme to defraud investors“. The case was later dismissed with prejudice. There was also the back and forth lawsuits regarding allegedly false sexual harassment accusations against Relativity’s former co-president. More recently, when Kavanaugh’s company Proxima Media bought a controlling stake in Triller, it settled a lawsuit from Timbaland and Swizz Beatz alleging $28 million in missed payments. He also had a complicated legal spat with Ethan and Hila Klein.
However this latest suit turns out, Skillhouse is already in theaters, and so far has two wildly divergent reviews on its Rotten Tomatoes page. One says it’s “a witty, campy and wickedly funny horror satire with its tongue placed firmly in its cheek.” The other says it’s “hard to watch it and think anything except ‘this is the worst movie ever made.'”
Ah, the dichotomy of film.
