Influencer

Well, I have to admit that with a title such as "Influencer", then I wasn't really harboring much of any hopes or expectations to director Kurtis David Harder's 2022 movie. Why? Well, simply because I find the whole term 'influencer' laughable and utter ridiculous. Yet, with it being a horror movie that I hadn't seen, of course I opted to give the movie the benefit of the doubt.

And while the movie is carrying a laughable title, then I will say that writers Tesh Guttikonda and Kurtis David Harder actually put together an entertaining script and storyline for the movie. Thankfully there isn't much focus on the ridiculous social media aspect of the influencer career and the hunt for likes from random strangers, and that definitely worked in favor of the movie that it wasn't a focal point. Instead, "Influencer" felt like a good old fashioned stalker thriller.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie. And while the movie has a very small cast ensemble, it should be noted that they were nicely cast for their individual roles, and they all performed quite well and brought their characters and the story to life on the screen in a good way. Especially Cassandra Naud (playing CW) carried the movie quite well with her performance.

"Influencer" is definitely worth taking 92 minutes to sit down and watch. I was genuinely entertained throughout the course of the movie. And if you enjoy thrillers, then give it a chance. "Influencer" is listed also as a horror movie, but don't get your hopes up on that account.

Well, the 87 minutes of the movie was great, while the ending and the last 5 minutes were so predictable that even a blind person would go 'you got to be kiddng me'. It was a very, very generic ending to the movie.

My rating of "Influencer" lands on a six out of ten stars.

As the unimaginative title suggests, this is the latest foray into the influencer "horror/thriller" film genre that seems to be "trending" right now, and much like the others this could easily be mistaken for a Lifetime movie. The plot and acting are straight out of the Lifetime playbook, it's laughably ridiculous at times and ironically, like the thousands of influencers out there, seems to think it's better than its peers. It's not.

Madison is an influencer who travels the world promoting products and places for money and freebies. Unsurprisingly she's unhappy and unfulfilled with her hollow and materialistic life. After a "chance" meeting with the seemingly friendly fellow solo-traveller CW they begin to explore Thailand together. However, it's not long before CW shows her true motives for befriending Madison.

When Madison's obnoxious unlikeable boyfriend turns up out of the blue to surprise her and make up for an argument they had, CW's plans start to unravel, putting in motion a series of increasingly ridiculous escalations as CW desperately tries to hide the things she's done.

The finale was so predictable that I already knew 25 minutes into the film how it was going to play out. Don't expect any surprises, you're likely to know what's going to happen minutes before it does.

It's all rather dull and formulaic with an extremely basic plot. It feels like it was made for daytime tv, but I've also seen worse in the Gen-Z horror field.

If you can get past the ridiculousness of it all, the sub-par acting, the fact that none of the characters are likeable enough to care about, and you can sit through an entire Lifetime film without cringing, then this may be for you; otherwise you might be better off saving 92 minutes of your life.

As others have said the audio mixing is also terrible. I watched this on Shudder, which I'm not sure makes the best use of audio mixing as I've noticed similar issues with other Shudder films, so it could be the film's audio team, or Shudder, but vocals are often drowned out by the overly-loud musical score and there are often extremely loud short pieces of music that I assume were supposed to build tension, but just seem out of place.

I haven't had a great run with Shudder films recently. I haven't enjoyed one in a while and so seeing that brand attached to a film was starting to become a disappointing warning sign. I am happy to say that 'Influencer' has gone a little way towards redeeming the brand. This was a fun ride.

I was a little bit worried early on during the set up when we were meeting an "influencer" and seeing all the pretentious and fake photo-shoots and blog posts. I was worried that was going to be a hard protagonist to root for. Then the film became something else entirely and it went down a very enjoyable and dark route.

I love it when a film feels like it has any ending on the cards. It doesn't matter whether it ends up being the darkest of dark endings or a happy ending or something in between. All that matters is that it feels like the film is capable of delivering the full spectrum and 'Influencer' had that feel about it.

I love it when you go into a film without overly high expectations and it then proceeds to prove you wrong at every turn. 'Influencer' was exactly that and I would highly recommend it. 8/10.

The movie itself it's quite interesting till the last 10 minutes that ruined everything. Are you serious?

I don't understand why Independent cinema can't be more original or risky.

First, the movie starts strong with a non original story but acting is decent and the landscapes are beautiful. So, overall good setting to start.

Second, the script is acceptable and credible most of the parts, but the last 10 minutes ruined everything including credibility, originality or any possible great score here. Honestly, I drastically changed my mind after watching how this movie ends.

So, overall the movie is watchable and forgettable as an Instagram post from any fake influencer. A wasted opportunity. It could have been far better with a real and authentic conclusion.

Quite enjoyable shudder original. Haven't seen many yet so this one is a rare gem. It's not a horror at all, it's a nice little thriller set in Thailand. Cassandra Naud leads, and is quite talented, using some charm and other more nefarious acting talents.

What I thought made this movie above average was the pacing, the plot itself which is pretty unique and well thought out, adding a social media element but not making it the entire story.

Some of the cinematography is pretty breath taking, on the water, etc and the settings are diverse so you don't get stuck in a location.

Overall it's a quite, tight, well acted thriller although a tad predictable at least for me. I'll give that a pass though, I watch too many movies. 6.5/10. We'll done!