Influencers
Director: Kurtis David Harder
Date Created: 2025-08-26 19:30
3.5
Harder’s Influencers takes the tired “killer stalks victim” formula and infuses it with modern accents. CW (Cassandra Naud), a magnetic and unhinged antihero, is both villain and victim in her own warped narrative. The film opens with a gut-punch flash-forward: Ariana (Lisa Delamar) takes her own life by the pool. It’s a haunting image that sets the tone, dark, voyeuristic, and uncomfortably real. Being an influencer can be grueling when your real life ends up on display instead of your facade.
“How did you get off the island?”
— The line of the film, and soon, the meme of the year.
Content Warning This review explores *Influencers*’ themes and cinematic vibes without major plot reveals, but sensitive topics like violence and a character’s self-harm are discussed. Finale spoilers are tucked away at the end. Proceed with care if these themes hit close to home. e ready for the dark, or step back for a spoiler-free ride.
Oh, David Kurtis Harder, how I love thee.
From his deceptively mundane aesthetic to his sharp narratives, Harder always delivers more than he promises. Influencers, the long-awaited follow-up to his 2023 sleeper hit, proves once again that you can do new things with old bones, especially if you bury the right bodies. This isn’t just another killer-stalks-victim movie. It’s a tech-infused, influencer-skewering psychological horror that leans into our obsession with curation, fame, and digital performance. Influencers don’t try to be epic; it’s far more cunning than that. It updates the rules of engagement.
CW is Back – And She’s Not Done Yet
Then we rewind.
CW now lives a peaceful-seeming life in Southern France with her lover Diane (Veronica Long). It’s quiet, intimate… until it isn’t. As soon as another influencer checks into their hotel, CW’s dark instincts resurface. The film’s strength lies in its ability to create likable characters. Naud’s performance is a layered psychopathy; she’s cool, gorgeous, and has a penchant for spotting a loner in the crowds. Like an itch she needs to scratch, she looks into the personalities behind influencer behaviour. Opportunistic, as a killer, this time around, she seems to have settled down. It’s a creepy nod to the original first film. Where Influencers shines is in its refusal to play nice.
CW’s charm is a trap, her settled-down facade a ticking bomb that echoes the original’s raw edge. The new influencer, Charlotte, a glossy rival whose perfect posts stir CW’s predatory instincts, while undoing the fragile balance of her life with Diane. Harder doesn’t just lean on horror tropes; he rewires them, making the real terror the way social media amplifies our worst impulses, jealousy, desperation, and the need to be seen. It’s a 2025 spin on the fame-chasing of old Hollywood, where starlets clawed for the spotlight, but now the stage is a phone screen, and the stakes feel bloodier.
“Someone got the best of me and left me to die.”
Quote from the film Influencers
— CW, confessing her past in half-truths
Back in the mix comes Madison (Emily Tennant), the survivor of the first film, and Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), a new player roped in by Madison after a brief encounter in a local bar. The narrative becomes a cat-and-mouse puzzle, one that pits revenge, delusion, and identity against a social-media-fueled backdrop. Madison could never prove that anyone had abducted her. CW disappeared, and so the world decided Madison made it all up.
AI, Fame & Revenge: A Different Kind of Killer
The sequel offers a fascinating turn: CW has upped her game. Not just with location (Thailand and France), but in the tools she uses. CW is now even better with AI tools, using it to infiltrate networks, spoof identities, manipulate outcomes, and even set traps via dating apps.
She’s a hacker, a lover, a murderer, a content creator, and an unapologetic villain.
Is she a stalker or just someone obsessed with justice, however warped?
Thailand Revisited, But Smaller
Once the story returns to Thailand (the original setting), the déjà vu hits hard, but Harder doesn’t just rehash. He digs deeper. Madison is back, bruised but dangerous, and CW is as seductive as ever.
Jacob becomes the pawn in a disturbing scenario, forced to figure out which of these ladies is the psycho, or if either can be trusted. The choreography in the final quarter is solid. The cinematography and practical effects, always a Harder strength, keep the horror grounded. No cheap jump scares, just dread, stalking every golden hour frame.
CW: Villain, Victim, or Both?
She’s an unreliable narrator, one who believes in her twisted sense of morality. That complexity keeps us hooked, even when the bodies start piling up.
Third Film Teased? Oh Absolutely
Influencers don’t play nice. And thank god for that. The score hums with low, pulsing dread, punctuated by CW uses to orchestrate her schemes. It’s a chilling reminder of how technology can amplify our worst impulses, much like the tactics of influencers who curate perfect lives online while chaos brews beneath.
Final Thoughts
Harder’s Influencers isn’t a sequel; it’s a statement. It takes everything people pretend to know about fame, filters, and the female villain archetype, and sets it on fire. Naud is magnetic. Tennant is vulnerable but fierce. And Harder proves that indie horror can still surprise, unsettle, and say something. Especially when it lets its monsters be messy, sexy, and complicated. It’s deeply invasive, but Influencers handles it with just enough menace to remind us that privacy and perception are dead in the digital age.
A sleek, mean little thriller that weaponizes influencer culture and AI against itself. Not perfect, but fresh, freaky, and wildly watchable. A must for fans of Cam, Tragedy Girls, and Sissy.
Influencers are rated
3.5 Digital Doppelgängers Out of 5
Fantasia 2025 Buzz
“A middle finger to influencer culture”
“Feels ripped from tomorrow’s headlines”
Kurtis David Harder’s Cinematic Style in Influencers
If you’ve seen Harder’s Spiral or his earlier works, you know he’s a maestro of mood. Influencers lean into their love for practical effects, think visceral, squelchy sound design over cheap CGI jumpscares. The cinematography, with its golden French countryside juxtaposed against CW’s dark deeds, is a visual poem. One scene, where CW lures Charlotte (Georgina Campbell), an influencer poking into her life, feels like a predator circling prey in a sunlit meadow.
Finale Spoilers
CW’s rampage escalates when she leaks footage of Ariana’s degrading encounter, pushing her to suicide. The public, watching via “two screens pointing at the pool,” still adores CW, proving her digital dominance. Jacob’s death, stabbed by Madison in a tragic misunderstanding, sets up a third installment, while CW’s killing spree, taking out Jacob’s bestie and entourage, cements her as a chaotic force. The lingering question, “How did she get off the island?” remains unanswered, teasing more mayhem.
The brilliance of Influencers is how CW remains likable in a totally psycho way. She’s not logical, she’s not balanced, but she’s oddly sincere. Her love for Diane feels real, and her sadness when she inevitably murders her? Equally real.
Film Details
- Film Title: Influencers
- Director: Kurtis David Harder
- Writer: Kurtis David Harder
- Cast: Cassandra Naud, Georgina Campbell, Lisa Delamar, Jonathan Whitesell, Veronica Long, Dylan Playfair
- Distribution: Shudder | Angel Films | Top Film Entertainment – Production by Jack Rabbit Films
- Release Date: Premiered at Fantasia Film Festival, July 26, 2025, with Head Case, the short film – read about that here.
- Review by: Mother of Movies
