Movies: Dedalus (2024) by Gianluca Manzetti: Influence, Isolation, and the Price of Going Viral
- dailyentertainment95
- Oct 29
- 6 min read
The Social Arena of Doom
Darkly satirical and visually arresting, Gianluca Manzetti’s “Dedalus” transforms the modern obsession with fame into a claustrophobic thriller for the digital age. Six influencers enter a glamorous contest for followers and fortune — only to discover that the real game is survival. Mixing Black Mirror cynicism with Italian neo-noir flair, Dedalus captures the collision between virtual validation and real-world consequences.
Set in an eerie, high-tech mansion turned arena, Dedalus follows six social media personalities — each hungry for recognition — as they compete in a mysterious new content competition. The game promises instant fame and unimaginable wealth, but as the challenges grow increasingly twisted, it becomes clear that they are pawns in someone else’s cruel revenge plot.
Directed by Gianluca Manzetti and co-written with Vincenzo Alfieri, Nicola Barnaba, and Roberto Cipullo, the film blends satirical comedy, psychological drama, and thriller elements. With performances by Giulio Beranek, Matilde Gioli, and Giulia Gorietti, the movie explores how digital personas can consume their creators — and how online cruelty never stays online.
Premiering in Italy on December 5, 2024, and later across Europe, Dedalus has been praised for its tense pacing, layered symbolism, and chillingly modern relevance.
Why to Watch This Movie: The Dark Side of Going Viral
Dedalus isn’t just entertainment — it’s a warning. With style and bite, it exposes the moral vacuum at the heart of influencer culture and the parasitic systems that feed it.
Smart commentary on influencer culture: A razor-sharp look at how content creation has become both career and trap.
Genre-bending narrative: Blends satire, mystery, and survival thriller with moments of surreal humour.
Global themes: Social media toxicity, manipulation, and revenge — all framed through the lens of an international cast.
Visual storytelling: Cinematic, neon-lit production design that mirrors the characters’ artificial lives.
Psychological depth: As each contestant’s secrets are revealed, the competition becomes a metaphor for confession and punishment.
It’s a must-watch for fans of Squid Game, The Menu, and Glass Onion — stories where privilege, vanity, and fear combust on screen.
Where to watch: https://www.justwatch.com/it/film/dedalus
Link IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31595821/
About movie: https://camaleocinema.it/en/video/dedalus/
What Is the Trend Followed: Digital Dystopia and Moral Reckoning
Dedalus fits squarely within a global wave of social media dystopias, joining a growing canon of films critiquing the performance of self in the digital era.
Reality as spectacle: Like Nerve (2016) or Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022), it blurs the line between entertainment and exploitation.
Satire meets horror: The absurdity of influencer culture is exaggerated until it becomes terrifyingly real.
Psychological unraveling: Contestants’ insecurities and trauma surface as they lose control of their curated identities.
Artificial authenticity: The film mocks “relatable” influencers while showing the machinery that forces them into performance loops.
By turning influencers into contestants in a moral experiment, Dedalus joins the trend of post-digital morality plays — modern parables where fame becomes punishment.
Movie Plot: Fame, Fear, and Fatal Likes
What begins as a dream opportunity spirals into a nightmare of control, deceit, and survival.
The Setup: Six social media creators from across Europe are selected to join Dedalus, an exclusive online contest run by a mysterious figure known only as The Master (Gianmarco Tognazzi). (Trend: gamified survival as moral experiment.)
The Rules: The players must complete “engagement challenges” — stunts designed to go viral — filmed and broadcast in real-time.
The Twist: Each challenge becomes increasingly dangerous, targeting their personal fears and past mistakes.
The Revelation: It’s revealed that Dedalus isn’t a random competition but a revenge plot orchestrated by someone wronged by their online cruelty.
The Breakdown: As the players turn on one another, alliances collapse and the “followers” watching online begin to choose who lives or dies.
The Climax: One final twist exposes the mastermind — and forces the last survivor to face what it truly means to “win” in a world built on spectacle.
The film’s final act is a haunting commentary on collective voyeurism, suggesting that even watching suffering has become a form of entertainment.
Director’s Vision: Gianluca Manzetti’s Digital Allegory
Manzetti, known for his bold visual style, delivers a film that feels part Greek tragedy, part tech-age thriller.
Stylistic influences: The Truman Show meets Saw via the aesthetics of Italian fashion cinema.
Cinematography: Sterile LED lighting and minimalist architecture create a futuristic yet empty atmosphere.
Tone: Balances satire with unease — laughter that turns to dread.
Symbolism: The name Dedalus references the mythic craftsman who built the labyrinth — a metaphor for algorithms, echo chambers, and entrapment.
Philosophy: Fame becomes a modern labyrinth — beautiful, complex, and ultimately fatal.
Manzetti crafts a visually poetic nightmare, using the digital world’s language — filters, confessions, edits — to critique the illusions it sustains.
Themes: The Algorithm of Guilt
At its heart, Dedalus is about how we curate our sins for public consumption.
Surveillance and self-exposure: The contestants volunteer for visibility, only to be destroyed by it.
Identity and illusion: Online personas crumble when forced to confront real consequences.
Revenge as performance: The villain uses the same viral mechanics as the influencers to punish them — a dark mirror of the system they exploited.
Addiction to validation: Each player’s downfall stems from their hunger for approval and attention.
Dehumanization of empathy: The “viewers” online cheer as the contestants suffer, showing how voyeurism erodes compassion.
Through these layers, the film builds a biting critique of the attention economy — a world where even suffering is monetized.
Main Factors Behind Its Impact: Modern Morality in Motion
Dedalus resonates because it merges genre thrills with ethical reflection, offering both adrenaline and awareness.
Cultural relevance: Perfectly timed for audiences questioning social media’s power.
Character archetypes: Each influencer represents a digital archetype — the activist, the beauty guru, the prankster, the gamer — making their downfalls feel symbolic.
Visual spectacle: A sleek European aesthetic contrasts sharply with the story’s brutality.
Psychological realism: The fear of irrelevance is treated with the same gravity as physical danger.
Cross-genre appeal: At once suspenseful, philosophical, and darkly comedic.
It’s not just a film about content — it’s a film of the content era, dissecting our obsession with being seen.
Awards & Recognition: Emerging Voices in Euro-Thriller Cinema
Dedalus earned attention on the European indie circuit for its daring tone and conceptual precision:
Best Director Nomination – Rome Independent Film Festival
Official Selection – Sitges Fantastic Film Festival
Audience Award Nominee – Warsaw Vision Festival
Critics praised it as a “digital-era morality tale” that blends Italian craftsmanship with global relevance.
Critics Reception: A High-Concept Thriller with Moral Teeth
Critics have described Dedalus as an incisive, stylish, and unnervingly plausible film that reflects our current anxieties with chilling accuracy.
Cineuropa: “A sharp, cynical reflection on how we trade empathy for engagement.”
The Guardian: “Part thriller, part satire — an unsettling glimpse into the influencer-industrial complex.”
Variety: “Gianluca Manzetti’s direction is sleek, confident, and disturbingly prophetic.”
Screen Daily: “Like Squid Game through an arthouse lens — smart, tense, and morally disorienting.”
Overall: A high-concept European thriller that proves social media horror doesn’t need monsters — only mirrors.
Reviews: Audiences Spellbound and Unnerved
Viewers have praised the film’s intensity, sleek production, and relevance to modern fears.
Letterboxd: “Feels like if Black Mirror were directed by Paolo Sorrentino.”
User reviews: Commend the cast’s layered performances and the film’s eerie use of light, isolation, and sound.
Audience sentiment: Some viewers found it emotionally heavy, but most called it “a rare European thriller that feels truly of this moment.”
Consensus: A thought-provoking, anxiety-inducing film that lingers long after its final frame.
Movie Trend: The Rise of Tech-Paranoia Cinema
Dedalus contributes to the rising genre of tech-paranoia thrillers, where morality, media, and surveillance intersect. Similar to The Circle (2017) and Cam (2018), it reflects cultural anxiety around visibility — how the desire to be watched can become self-destructive.
This wave of cinema acts as a moral compass for the algorithmic age, confronting the question: What happens when humanity becomes content?
Social Trend: The Cult of the Influencer and the Weaponization of Attention
The film mirrors real-world phenomena — from online callouts to digital witch hunts — showing how reputation and revenge have merged in virtual spaces.In the attention economy, visibility itself becomes punishment, and anonymity — the one thing every influencer fears — becomes liberation.
Dedalus forces audiences to consider: in a world where everyone is performing, who is truly watching — and why?
Final Verdict: A Stylish Descent into the Algorithm’s Labyrinth
Dedalus is sleek, savage, and disturbingly real — a modern myth about the collapse of authenticity in the digital age.With its tense atmosphere and satirical precision, it captures how the pursuit of fame can lead to moral oblivion.
Both thrilling and philosophical, it’s a film that doesn’t just entertain — it implicates the viewer, daring us to ask whether we’d play the game too.
Similar Movies: Fame, Fear, and Digital Deception
Squid Game (2021) – Competition as social critique.
Nerve (2016) – Gamification of identity and risk.
Cam (2018) – Online double lives and fractured selfhood.
The Platform (2019) – Class and control through survival.
The Menu (2022) – Satire of privilege and punishment.
Comments