This Shudder Original has been on my radar for a little while, as it deals with one my least favourite aspects of modern life: social media. But did the execution live up to the premise? Does it successfully hold my attention enough to not have me reach for my Switch while I watch? Find out below.
Plot
The film is set in sunny, beautiful, idyllic Thailand. Madison (Emily Tennant) is on a solo holiday, posting all the while about how happy she is, how serene the holiday is, when in reality she is lonely because her boyfriend Ryan (Rory J. Saper) was meant to be with her, but he bailed. Luckily she meets CW (Cassandra Naud) who shows her the local delights of Thailand.
However, something is amiss with CW – why doesn’t she like having her photo taken? Why is she here alone? Where does she get her money from? And why has she befriended Madison?
What follows is a creepy, sometimes gory, social-media-thriller involving CW, Madison and Ryan’s quest to win back the affections of his girlfriend. Throw in a second influencer, Jessica (Sara Canning) who also gets caught up in CW’s world, and you’ve got a film that made me sign up to Shudder (not sponsored – I wish!).
Review
Let’s start with the plot. In simple form, it’s about how what you see on social media isn’t reality. It’s about how “influencers” could literally be anybody, and most people wouldn’t notice. But it’s also about jealousy, loneliness, relationships, friendships and (in part) psychopathy. It’s not perfect, there are points where it gets lost and a little lazy. For example, there’s a flashback to when Madison and Ryan first meet, showing how they first meet and how their “real” relationship was. But, why use a flashback when you already have social media as a device? You could have had Ryan looking at photos or videos from their time together, rather than using a flashback, the only one we get. It felt a little odd.
The way the “main character” is framed is interesting. Madison starts as the main character, it then shifts to CW and sometimes even to Ryan. I did like the different perspectives, so it didn’t get stale. However, if we had CW as the primary for the whole thing, it would have perhaps revealed her motivation behind her madness a little more.
For the most part, the acting was good. Cassandra Naud as CW was particularly good, there were times where they focused in on her face and she had that perfect “I’m picturing your death” face. I really hope I get to see more of Naud. Emily Tennant had a great naivety about her, adding to the sense of foreboding. Rory J. Saper as Ryan really grew on me, which I think was the intention, as you get to know the person behind the influencer. However, the few scenes that made me cringe slightly were when Ryan was getting angry, his “shouty” scenes weren’t believable enough.
The stand out scene for me was the one where Ryan gets drunk and CW isn’t. If you’ve seen the movie you’ll know which one I mean. It really had a “Saltburn bathtub scene” air to it – you want to look away but you can’t. If Influencer had more of those scenes, not gory but just truly sinister, it would have been a much scarier and interesting watch.
Overall, Influencer is worth a watch. I intended to watch about 10 minutes and finish up in the morning and ended up staying awake to finish it.
3/5 stars, if you’re into that.
That Horror Chick 