Influencers

While writer-director Kurtis David Harder’s Influencers deals with a newer horror trope — influencers getting into trouble — it distinguishes itself by understanding a simple truth: before the bloodletting begins, influencer culture is already haunted. Taking it to the extreme, careers are short, visibility is volatile, and public affection turns feral in seconds. Add the creeping inevitability of A.I. replacement, and the whole profession, if one can call it that, hums with panic. This sequel leans into that anxiety with a darker story, both in theme and motive, delivering a venomous satiric thriller that skewers its own monsters and its victims.

“CW’s old instincts reawaken after a petty but telling encounter with an annoying English travel influencer, prompting a shift in identity and a relocation to Bali.”

The original Influencer was especially savage; in part, because it introduced one of horror’s most compelling new screen killers: CW, played with hypnotic restraint by Cassandra Naud. CW is a drifter with a distinctive facial birthmark who targets vapid travel vloggers. The ending left the sole survivor, Madison (Emily Tennant), traumatized and publicly suspected of crimes she didn’t commit. Picking up roughly a year later, Madison has been legally cleared, but the internet has already passed sentence. True-crime podcasters and conspiracy theorists keep her trapped in an Amanda Knox-style purgatory. Meanwhile, CW has slipped into a new life in southern France. She is living in luxury on the Riviera with her girlfriend, Diane (Lisa Delamar), who believes she’s found romance, not a killer. CW’s old instincts reawaken after a petty but telling encounter with an annoying English travel influencer (Georgina Campbell), prompting a shift in identity and a relocation to Bali.

Enter Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), a men’s rights influencer whose alpha-male rhetoric masks profound insecurity and behaviour opposite to what he preaches. Ariana (Veronica Long), his girlfriend and mentor, is urging him to be more controversial as he is slipping in ratings. She herself is a reactionary firebrand parroting culture-war slogans and living off the wealth. Jacob isn’t evil so much as pliable, which becomes a driving point. The influencers don’t just sell products; they sell ideologies, often without fully understanding or believing the damage they cause, nor do the people who often buy them understand.