INFLUENCERS (2025)

New streaming on Shudder from Jackrabbit Media!
Directed/Written by Kurtis David Harder.
Check out the trailer here!!

Picking up close to a year after the first film, Madison (Emily Tennant) is trying to put her life back together after being stranded on an island for a month by the notorious CW (Cassandra Naud), who took over her life and ended up stranded at that very island herself. Once back on the mainland, Maggie sent the authorities try to pick up the enigmatic CW, but she was inexplicably not there. Now a year has past, and no one knows where CW is or if she existed at all, leading some to believe Madison has been lying all of this time and was the one who murdered the three people. Vowing to clear her name, Madison sets out to track down CW who has started a new relationship with a French barista named Diane (Lisa Delamar). But as much as CW wants to start a new life with Diane, a leopard cannot change her spots, so to speak, and CW’s past is creeping up to get her.

Right off the bat, if you haven’t seen INFLUENCER, an excellent horror thriller from 2022, you definitely need to see it to follow what’s going on with INFLUENCERS, as this new film basically picks up right where the last one left off. This could be seen as a detriment to INFLUENCERS, as no film should really make you do homework prior to viewing. And while, I do think the film does a decent job of catching up the audience, you’ll definitely benefit from knowing these great characters and what they’ve been through prior to INFLUENCERS by seeing the original. Having seen INFLUENCER twice, I appreciated the nuanced callbacks and character development of both main characters all the more.

INFLENCERS is another wonderful puzzle of a movie, deftly pieced together with a handling of grace and perversity that is comparable to Hitchcock. Told out of chronological order, the story is still easy to follow. Filmmaker Kurtis David Harder has a true gift of telling an unconventional story, peppering in just what you need to know and then leading to a point where you’re on the edge of your seat, before switching to another plot thread. And when those threats come together, what a freaking cool sweater this movie makes. It all culminates into a brutal and bloody meeting between CW, a true chameleon who steals people’s lives and Madison, her victim that she truly underestimated. But the beauty is the intriguing steps in-between.

Cassandra Naud is a powerhouse of an actress. With a distinguishing birthmark and an attitude that can bend steel, she makes CW a true force of nature. In the first film, she was on top of her game and in control pretty much the entire time. But this film goes deeper and allows CW to let down her guard and we see a softer side to her that fleshes out this character all the more. Seeing the development from the first film to the next is fascinating in both Harder’s writing and Naud’s handling of this character that is a true psychopath. There are amazing moments where Naud lets loose and seems to really enjoy the sheer brutality she unleashes and then moments later, you almost feel for her with what happens to her in this movie. She seems to seek some kind of perfect life other than her own and when that is shattered, Naud makes the character all the more dimensional. This is a star making performance by Naud, who most likely will be a huge star very, very soon.

Emily Tennant’s Madison is another surprise. As with the first film, Madison is portrayed as an easy mark. A little vapid and maybe even dim. She’s savvy to the online world she lives in, but naïve to the real world when CW comes a knockin’. Her story offers an interesting twist on social media and how it can be with you in one minute and against you the next. Through Harder’s smart handling of the material, it offers her such an interesting character arc to follow. She’s seeking validation that CW exists and also revenge for what she did to her. This is another strong role that might be overshadowed by Naud, but Tennant is an important part of what makes this movie work so well.

Filmmaker Kurtis David Harder really has put together a movie that can appeal to both men and women—smart men and women, challenging them with a clever script that says big things about our addiction to the online world. But he never forgets to address the baser instincts by filling INFLUENCERS with gorgeous people going to exotic locales and doing extravagant things. The film is full of mystery and suspense, but Harder isn’t afraid to get brutal and gory when he has to. I hope we get an INFLUENCER 3 movie, as INFLUENCERS leaves things wide open for another. Until then, don’t miss INFLUENCER and its sequel, INFLUENCERS. It’s one of those movies you want to watch and watch again with someone who hasn’t just to see their reaction.