Final Rating: 2/5
Influencers is director Kurtis David Harder’s latest is the follow up to his 2022 horror flick Influencer. Cassandra Naud reprises her role as CW and her presence, as in the original, is one that commands attention. Leaning into Scream 2’s rules for sequels, it ups the body count and gore from the get go. We find CW in France roughly a year after the events of the first film, where she’s living life with her new girlfriend, Diane (Lisa Delamar). The couple venture off on a weekend get-away to the countryside for their one year anniversary but soon find things are not going as planned.
They meet Charlotte (Georgina Campbell), a self-involved influencer who is essentially a walking advertisement for being a walking advertisement. She ingratiates herself with Diane, much to the chagrin of CW, flaunting her brand deals at every opportunity. In typical slasher fashion, CW wastes little time in relieving them of her company. It is also soon apparent Diane has no clue regarding CW’s true past.
Much like the original it delves into the world of social media, its impact on society, the example it sets for a younger generation, as well as the potential dangers of AI. The added layers here in include the true crime phenomenon as Madison (Emily Tennant) is now the subject of much interest following the events of Influencer, as well as internet commenters and misogynistic online cretins.
Problem is while it touches on these subjects it never offers particularly salient insight, nor fleshes out these characters in an innovative manner or imbues them with depth beyond the stereotypes. Credit to the cast who play their parts aptly, however, they’re ultimately archetypes carved out just enough to reach the precipice of something noteworthy. At one juncture, when Madison is discussing the events of the first film on a podcast, and how she’s become a parish since, it commits the cardinal sin of being self-referential, pointing out flaws in the first film itself, and not in a manner that enhances the plot.
What the original was able to do more effectively was build tension as CW essentially takes over Madison’s life and we see her using her wits to cover her tracks at every turn. Influencers seems more intended to play out like a cat and mouse story with Madison venturing to track down CW. The issue being after Madison manages to discover her whereabouts and arrives in Bali where CW is on vacation with ‘Diane’, she disappears for much of the rest of the film so we really never get the same climatic sense or tension the first more aptly delivered.
In the course of searching for CW, Madison meets Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell) an online dude bro promoting hustle culture and toxic masculinity on his channel who tries to pick her up at a bar. His domineering, conservative influencer girlfriend Ariana (Veronica Long) pushes him in his career pursuits, whether he’s comfortable with everything he’s saying or not. His friend Cameron (Dylan Playfair – of Letterkenny fame) has little use for Ariana and it’s not hard to see why. This snapshot of modern online celebrity no doubt bears some accuracy, but isn’t especially innovative.
The second act attempts in part to give CW some redeeming qualities, as a rooting interest is generally advisable for any main character, but without getting into particular spoiler territory it doesn’t hit as hard given her actions which caused the circumstances in the first place. Then there is the climax, which in part plays like something straight out of a Looney’s Tunes bit which is a massive tonal shift, and not for the better.
While I imagine it’ll find an audience in the genre world, as the beautiful people in beautiful settings look precisely that, it’s a step down from its predecessor and its influence will remain to be seen.
Thank you to Shudder and Brigade for the screener.
