There is often the old adage you hear in many online reviews: must a movie be “good”? In this case, is it not enough for a trashy horror thriller to be called ‘Influencers’? A film that takes place in the world of online Instagram influencers all across the globe, a premise that might turn off any detester of social media to begin with?
Director Kurtis David Harder teams up again with stars Cassandra Naud and Emily Tennant to deliver us this sequel to Influencer. I quite enjoyed Influencer for what it was; a story involving a serial murderer named CW who roams the streets of Thailand utilizing social manipulation and tech savviness to specifically target popular social media influencers for her victims. On paper, the influencer trope is abundant throughout the horror genre, yet Influencer takes a very tight 90 minute approach with solid direction to mine out some nuggets of satire regarding the influencer world, AI and how social media can be a place where the dead can continue to live on forever.
‘Influencers’ ups the ante quite a bit. While it does not expand on the social media satire nor does it feel any more progressive or ahead of the curve as the first one, there’s still plenty of fun to be had. More exotic locations this time around, specifically roaming through the streets of Paris and the outdoors French countryside as well as the tropical paradise of Bali in Indonesia. More brutal kills – the opening scene alone serves as one example and delivers a great tone-setter for what is to come for the rest of the movie.
This time around, we have CW’s partner Diane, in which we assume that relationship must have started some time after the events of ‘Influencer’. We find out some time later (after what CW perceives as her betrayal and dispatches her) that CW has converted her likeness into an AI voice chatbot. A drone willing to do her bidding, who cannot say no to her.uch like in Influencer, she also uses her Photoshop and deepfake abilities to imitate her victims, whether on social media or fooling Diane’s own mother via a video call.
In the meanwhile, following the events of the first film we also have Madison. Framed for the deaths of her boyfriend and a couple others by the hand of CW, she sets out for vengeance. She eventually chases her trail and catches up to CW, culminating in a final showdown – one that results in some pretty hilarious slapstick shenanigans. While logically none of this really adds up, there’s enough self-aware campiness that this series has presented thus far such that I was willing to buy into the ridiculousness.
I will say, the exposition dumps I could do without – the podcast scene was unnecessary especially for those already familiar with the first ‘Influencer’. That whole sequence could have been condensed down to a 5 second byte at the very most – that Madison is being framed and the public does not trust her. Some of the details and flashbacks with regard to the CW & Diane relationship invoke a serious sentimentality at times, which feels at odds with the rest of the film. As much as we don’t have to like these so-called social media personalities (and we shouldn’t), CW was never portrayed as a sympathetic figure either, or a person we would like to root for, and so the whole romantic subplot is built on shaky ground. For a film that shows self-awareness in how schlocky it gets without much restraint, those moments seem rather a little unfortunate and only serves to pad out the 110 minute or so runtime as opposed to the
Still, Influencers is a pretty fun time, and this ongoing franchise is shaping up to be among the best films under the Shudder platform.
