Returning for round two in the troubling adventures of CW (Cassandra Naud), writer/director Kurtis David Harder brings us Influencers, the sequel to the surprisingly effective story set in the world of social media figures and those who worship them. CW leads a quiet, sun-drenched life in the countryside of southern France with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar). During a long-deserved vacation, the couple run into Charlotte (Georgina Campbell), a charming and persuasive influencer whose curiosity about their relationship feels intrusive to CW. That in turn engages CW’s more violent impulses, the consequences of which instantaneously upend her idyllic life and force her to once again rebuild her life from a suitcase full of fake IDs and cash from all over the world.
The added twist of Influencers is that a survivor from the first film, Madison (Emily Tennant), is hot on the heals of CW’s path of destruction. When last they met, CW arranged things to make Madison appear very guilty of all sorts of blood-soaked crimes while she moved on without a trace that she ever existed (if you remember Influencer, that’s kind of her specialty). By the time Madison catches up to CW in southeast Asia, CW is deeply engrained in the lives of a couple played by Jonathan Whitesell and Veronica Long, screwing up their lives and once again making Madison appear even more guilty this time around. Things get bloody and chaotic, just the way CW likes, so that she can slither away unscathed, leaving others to pick up the pieces.
Much like the first film, the strength of Influencers is the performances. Naud plays CW as wildly intelligent and dangerously conniving. When their world threatens to come crashing down is exactly when you have to be especially nervous of what they do next. The various influencers CW comes into contact with are played with just the right amounts of entitlement and self-absorption, and although I would never personally wish them harm, they still suck. I’m curious to see what director Harder’s first film outside of this universe will be, if only to see if his observations about other walks of life are equally piercing.
The film is now streaming on Shudder.
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