Followed

The entire narrative unfolds through the lens of a single, enigmatic screencast, as if we're privy to a mysterious observer's gaze. The camera captures a series of vlogs created by DropTheMike (DropTheMike), a provocative YouTuber who vanished after checking into the notorious Lennox Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. As the user delves deeper into these digital diaries, they receive cryptic messages from Mike's friends, which are largely ignored.

As the Halloween weekend approaches, DropTheMike accepts an enticing offer: $250,000 if he can boost his subscriber count to 50,000. Seizing this opportunity, Mike decides to spend the spooky weekend at the Lennox Hotel, a place shrouded in tragedy and terror since its inception. The hotel's dark past is punctuated by the recent discovery of Korean tourist Meghan Kim's charred remains in the boiler room, following an eerie display of erratic behavior in the elevator.

Mike's investigation takes him to the author Wallace Fleischer, who regales him with tales of David Olmos, a serial killer and self-proclaimed Satanist who once resided at the Lennox Hotel in the 1980s. The next day, DropTheMike, his editor Nic (Nic), religious director of photography Chris (Chris), and sound engineer Dani (Dani) arrive at the hotel. Mike, Dani, and Chris take up residence on the top floor, where Olmos once committed his heinous crimes, while Nic settles in next door to work on their vlogs.

As the days pass, DropTheMike's team attempts to access the restricted basement area, but they lose their drone when it becomes stuck behind the chained doors. A sympathetic security guard, Tony (Tony), catches them in the act, revealing himself to be a devoted fan of Mike. He promises to provide them with the key to the basement, granting them access to the hotel's deepest secrets.

DropTheMike becomes fixated on the "Elevator Game," an urban legend that claims one must enter an elevator alone and press specific floors to unlock another dimension. Convinced Meghan Kim had attempted this ritual, Mike decides to play the game himself, only to seemingly encounter Kim's ghostly presence. He brushes off the experience as a prank by an overzealous fan. However, when he hears disembodied knocking at their front door, Mike receives a Skype call from his fiancée Jess (Jess), announcing her pregnancy to him.

As they celebrate this news, Chris discovers Nic in a distressed state, exhibiting signs of self-harm. Shortly after, Chris stumbles upon a gruesome, decapitated ghost in the hallway and calls out for Mike and Dani. Together, they follow the ghostly apparition to the hotel roof, where they find an ominous satanic altar above their room, complete with a platter bearing an animal's tongue. The dark forces at play begin to manifest themselves, threatening to unravel the very fabric of reality.

As the cryptic vlog comes to a close, an enigmatic user uploads the third installment onto DropTheMike's channel, unwittingly unleashing a maelstrom of paranormal activity. Mike (DropTheMike) suddenly finds himself hot on the trail of a ghostly apparition, seemingly recognizing a phantom child lurking in the hotel's corridors. Meanwhile, Chris and Dani are forced to flee for their lives as they're pursued by the malevolent spirit of Olmos, its hacking saw raised like a deadly scythe.

As Mike attempts to track down the elusive child to Room 440, he finds himself inexplicably transported back to the top floor, where his journey takes an eerie turn. A distressed DropTheMike reaches out to Wallace, who reveals that this fateful room was once home to a police detective, driven by grief and madness after murdering his wife and bringing his two sons to the hotel. The detective's descent into chaos culminates in the brutal slaying of his eldest son, before he's met with a gruesome end at the hands of a maintenance worker who had encountered the traumatized youngest son.

As Chris packs his bags to make a hasty exit from the hotel, Mike confides in Dani about his own troubled past as an adopted child. Their somber conversation is interrupted by the heart-stopping spectacle of an elderly woman plummeting from her room window, sending Mike and Dani scrambling for cover. In the aftermath, they're chased down by the very same drug dealer they had previously filmed, only to be saved in the nick of time by Chris's timely intervention.

As the stakes continue to escalate, Dani's psyche begins to fray at the seams, prompting her to flee the hotel alongside Chris. Mike, however, remains resolute in his determination to uncover the truth, even as he's forced to confront a harrowing revelation: Nic is on the brink of disaster, poised to take a fatal leap from her room window.

With a heavy heart, DropTheMike intervenes just in time, and then tends to Nic's fragile psyche. As the dust settles, Mike receives an unsettling phone call from Jess, imploring him to come home and leave the hotel's dark secrets behind. But Mike is now driven by an insatiable curiosity, and so he decides to proceed into the depths of the boiler room, armed with nothing but his trusty camera and a willingness to face the unknown.

As DropTheMike begins broadcasting live from the heart of darkness, he stumbles upon Tony's cryptic notebook, filled with ominous occult symbols. The air is thick with tension as Mike confronts a labyrinth of ghostly apparitions, a gruesome discovery, and an existential crisis that threatens to consume him whole.

As DropTheMike (character) wraps up his livestream, he shocks his audience by announcing an indefinite hiatus from the digital realm. But this pause in activity belies a deeper purpose, as he reveals plans to produce a documentary about the plight of downtown Los Angeles' homeless population, seeking to counterbalance the darkness with a dose of positivity. Little does Mike know, however, that his decision will soon be interrupted by an unexpected power outage.

As he struggles to comprehend the sudden loss of electricity, Mike is confronted by a bizarre and unsettling sight: his house is teeming with shadowy figures, their presence seeming to draw closer like a dark, amorphous tide. Tony and Kim, two enigmatic figures shrouded in mystery, then appear before him, bearing an unspeakable gift - the severed head of Mike's fiancée. The horror of this revelation sends Mike into hiding, his disappearance leaving behind only whispers and speculation.

Meanwhile, on a separate channel, TerribleTyler, a young vlogger with a penchant for sensationalism, declares his intention to break into DropTheMike's abandoned home in search of answers. As Tyler sets out to uncover the truth, an unsuspecting viewer under Mike's account suddenly posts a comment on the video, inviting Tyler to meet up, their words dripping with eerie familiarity. The chat section erupts into fervent speculation about Mike's supposed return from the shadows, but just as the conversation reaches its peak, the user logs off, revealing Mike's blurred face staring back from the laptop's camera - a haunting reminder that, in this strange and twisted world, nothing is as it seems.