Influencer

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.

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!

I rounded up from a 7.5/10 but I think this is closer to an 8 than a 7 if I had to pick. I watch A LOT of movies and TV, I travel for work and also bring my iPad every time I hit the treadmill etc, if you look my background I'm def not a shill and I'm not someone who goes around giving out high ratings to everything (nothing annoys me on IMDb more than the overuse of 1s & 10s lately). I feel the need to say all of this because despite being critically acclaimed the IMDb score on this movie now sits at a 6.0/10 which is just absurd to me!

Sure this wasn't a perfect movie, but for someone who knew absolutely nothing about it going into it, I was pleasantly surprised in a way I hadn't been in a really long time. Part of that is probably bc 90%+ of the time I know what to expect, so there aren't a lot of opportunities for surprise, but regardless it was a really rewarding experience.

A few things I really enjoyed: -Sound & Score: someone else here complained about the score (some of it seemed like real techno music but it was mostly original from what I can tell via Shazam) which was really great in helping to create a lonely but something is kind of off feeling. My fav movie of all time is 1979 Alien, and while ofc this movie isn't close to that, one thing they do is use the score perfectly to create the mood and sounds to build tension and keep you off kilter. It's just something I love in a movie personally and you don't get a lot of it, it's very hard to pull off even if it might sound Easy.

-Setting: this movie is set in Thailand but they used it in a really unique way. I've seen movies and shows (especially travel non fiction) set in Thailand and it always feels the same for the most part - hectic Bangkok at night, food stalls, seedy bars with prostitution, etc. Here we see a different side of Thailand though - the high-end resorts and beaches in less populated areas, luxury, the way they shot some of of the tourists transport to make it feel more lonely/ominous..really cool stuff.

-Plot: since I watch a lot and read a lot I think I'm usually pretty good at predicting what's going to happen. I have to admit, I did predict the very last thing that happens in the movie, since the clues were laid out for that to happen. Just about everything else though I did not see coming. Kind of a genre bender at times between Horror, Thriller, and Travel which I thought the tonal shifts really worked, again something that usually doesn't.

-Acting: I personally thought most of the acting was ok nothing great or bas - except for the girl who played CW (birth mark face) I thought she was fantastic. Especially early on when we see her Modulate her personality with the second influencer she meets. I think we will see her again.

So what are the negatives then? I would say the one thing I could've used even a couple of more pieces of exposition about, and I think they easily could've been weaved in through us seeing something on the laptop screen or subtext from an out of context comment by CW to someone - is to know a little more about her backstory. Unless I missed it I really didn't feel like I knew anything about why she did what she did or how she started doing it or why she was in Thailand or if she had any hard lessons in the past etc. It seems like she had being doing this for a long time but then other clues make it seem like she hasn't while other other clues make it seem like she is super experienced and even just like 2-3 more min total run time in this movie, you could still maintain the mystery but with a couple of details to make the character more compelling. I think what some writers forget sometimes is that over explaining or too much exposition is bad and kills the viewers imagination and the mystery in a story like this - but not enough can make the character feel less compelling and a little more flat, generic, or archetypical but not in a good way - more like a cartoon bad than a real person forged from lived experience.

Anyway, I definitely recommend this to anyone who likes unsettling movies, movies shot in atypical locations, etc. Worth a watch

I would compare it to the movie Drive with Ryan Gosling in its feel. Drive is a better movie but they definitely share some DNA especially when it comes to the use of sound and music.

Influencer, the title alone made me already having very low expectations. Needless to say I don't have a high opinion of influencers, the wannabe starlets, even lesser for their mindless followers, brainwashed puppets. But since it was a horror movie I watched it in the hope the influencer would get her comeuppance. Emily Tennant played the wannabe diva and she did a good job. But the main star of the movie was Cassandra Naud who was most convincing in her performance. Overall not a bad movie at all. It could all happen in real life, where too much people trust everything and everybody on social media. A modern horror/thriller that I enjoyed watching.

I'm about to hop in...

Pros:

-Great story

-Great development

-OK, but not great acting

-Found it fascinating that there was a 30 min preface to the film.

-Great length, not over the top short or long, it's perfect.

Cons (or my thought process didn't fit in)

-Being marked a "Horror" is simply not it. There are no repulsiveness components to it nor even close. This is a decent spine chiller that you've most certainly seen from different titles, harking back to the 80 and 90s.

-Fairly unsurprising, albeit, the promotion and climate of the film were finished.

• It's a low financial plan. Presently there is nothing amiss with it. It might have had a superior possibility of being a hit in the cinema world in the event that there were Elite actors playing this.

-The completion was simply somewhat lost and disregarded. Might have finished way more astute than it really did.

Outline: It's agreeable, it's tempting, it keeps you honest till the end and you will love watching it.