Wrong time. Wrong place. Wrong man.
Accused follows Harri Bhavsar (Chaneil Kular, Sex Education), a young man whose life is turned upside down after he is mistakenly identified as a terrorist on twitter following a train station bomb threat. On his way home to dog-sit for his parents whilst they go on holiday, Harri narrowly misses being caught in the blast, which in itself causes media outrage and public fear. On twitter an old classmate of Harri’s then tweets that he shares a resemblance to the blurry suspect photo and suddenly his name is trending for all the wrong reasons.
Without any form of proof the entire world suddenly become convinced that Harri was responsible for the bombing, resulting in countless online and even telephone threats. Harri calls the police for help but is unable to receive any immediate action, leaving him on his own to face the media storm. Now stuck out in the middle of nowhere with no company but his family dog, can Harri make it through the night and clear this entire mess up or will those online make good on their threats and come and find him, putting him in a whole world of danger.
Accused was a brilliant take on how the spreading of false information can be deadly and how one rumour gone wrong can completely ruin someone’s life. From a single tweet in a single second Harri’s life completely changed and people instantly started going after him, all from something that wasn’t even true. The internet, social media especially, can be a breeding ground for false information and it really united this whole group of people in their hatred (however misplaced it was). A very modern feeling thriller, the online world was the real danger here and I liked how we touched on rumours spreading but also how easily accessible information can be and how quickly people tracked Harri down. It was a terrifying reality and the fear factor was very real here.
Most of the time the danger and threats in this film came from behind a screen and I liked how we got to explore the faceless villain and how people are able to talk a big game online with little to no consequences. This entire film kickstarted with one mistimed tweet and from that Harri was viciously attacked both online and then later in person. All of Harri’s attackers were able to use social media as this breeding ground that only got worse and worse as more people joined it but despite this nobody really faced any consequences. Aside from the two men who actually went to attack Harri in person everybody else presumably got off scot free, deleting their tweets and probably pretending it all never happened. I liked the added touch that we never actually saw the people tweeting at Harri, only hands typing, because once their tweets had been erased and the whole ordeal has ended they were basically forgotten, it was a nice touch.
Overall I enjoyed watching Accused and loved the way the film used social media in this very modern feeling thriller. With his whole life changed in seconds because of a single tweet, Harri must face his anonymous attackers head on and fight for survival in a deadly case of mistaken identity. A fast paced and exciting watch, Accused was an interesting take on cancel culture, social media and racism and I enjoyed watching thoroughly.
Ramblings of a Supposed Writer 