There’s a story everyone loves in this industry about James Cameron and his pitch for the movie “Aliens.” It goes like this: Cameron, in a meeting with studio executives, wrote the title of Ridley Scott’s classic sci-fi horror movie “Alien” on a piece of paper. Then he wrote the letter “s” at the end. Then he added two vertical lines, transforming the “s” into a dollar sign. The rest, as they say, is history.
It’s a great tale, but you can’t duplicate it, can you? Somehow I doubt John Singleton pitched “2 Fast 2 Furious” by drawing a couple of “2’s” on the poster for “The Fast and the Furious.” But I’ll make an exception while imagining the pitch for Kurtis David Harder’s “Influencers,” the sequel to his own fantastic 2022 social media thriller. If you told me he walked into an office, wrote the word “Influencer” on a dry erase board, then slapped the Shudder “s” logo on the end, I’d believe you.
“Influencer” starred Cassandra Naud as CW, a woman who stalks social media influencers, lures them to a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, and leaves them there to die. Meanwhile she steals their identity, makes fake posts to trick the fans into thinking they’re alive, and moves on to her next victim. Harder’s original sticks to her first target, Madison (Emily Tennant), until CW reveals her sinister intentions. Then we watch as CW’s brilliant plans get screwed over by nosy boyfriends and bad luck, in a Hitchcockian second half that really turns the screws.
The original “Influencer” left CW in a very bad place, but every time the sequel asks how she got out of that little head-scratcher, Kurtis David Harder makes us feel jerks for bringing it up. Because there’s a sequel, that’s how. Do you want a sequel or not?
I do want a sequel. I want a sequel very much, and “Influencers” doesn’t disappoint. The original “Influencer” was one of the sharpest movies of 2022, in more ways than one. A rip-roaring roast of social media culture, by way of Patricia Highsmith, if she had lived to see us make asses of ourselves on Instagram. The sequel adds worthy new targets and gets deeper inside the twisted head of CW. It spends too much time revealing backstory and following up loose threads to stand on its own, but as an interconnected follow-up, it’s a bloody good time.
Like the original, “Influencers” starts in mysterious territory, with CW in love with a French woman, Diane (Lisa Delamar). Their anniversary vacation gets ruined by, you guessed it, an influencer, and you know exactly what’s going to happen next. What’s less clear is whether this first act is a prequel, revealing CW’s origin story, or a sequel, but eventually all is revealed and the story bifurcates, catching up to CW’s latest scheme and catching up with one of her surviving victims, who tracks her all over the world.
Eventually we meet CW’s new playthings, the misogynistic manosphere influencer Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell) and his ultraconservative girlfriend Ariana (Veronica Long). The hatred they spew is, mostly, a grift, which makes them no less deserving of CW’s wrath. That wrath culminates in a climax that’s horrifying, and a little more hilarious than necessary. These “Influencer” movies have always had a dark sense of humor but “Influencers” eventually hits the gas on that, driving the tone all the way to camp. Not that that’s the worst problem in the world. If nothing else, Cassandra Naud looks like she’s having fun.
The genius of these “Influencer” movies is that Kurtis David Harder and Cassandra Naud know exactly how to play CW’s villainy. She’s a terrible human being, a villain by any rational standard, but she’s clever. Extremely clever. Audiences can forgive a lot of terrible things if a character is clever. The only thing we want more than CW’s comeuppance is to watch her weasel her way out of it. She’s a wonderfully wicked modern day Tom Ripley. We understand where she’s coming from, we know she’s unforgivable, but we can’t take our eyes away. Even after “Influencers” softens her up a bit, she’s still mesmerizingly vile.
That being said, CW’s dastardly deeds are beginning to strain credulity. Her plan in “Influencer” was ingeniously straightforward. Simple enough that it seems bulletproof, but loose enough to keep finding unexpected holes. When CW sets her plan in motion in “Influencers,” I think even she’s surprised by how well it works. There’s a definite “someone up there likes me” quality to CW’s life story, and that someone is clearly the film’s writer/director.
Kurtis David Harder’s slick and sly “Influencer” movies are a dark mirror to Paul Feig’s “Simple Favor” films, with similar backdrops and similarly twisty stories, but a bleaker world view and a lot more blood. If they came out in the 1990s they’d have 4K special editions with fawning essays from film critics, and if I had my way I’d be one of them. Honestly, nowadays it’s a wonder “Influencer” found a big enough audience to warrant a sequel at all, but we’re all lucky that it did. “Influencers” is a sadistic delight, just like its predecessor, and if Harder has any pitches for “Influencers 3: Parabellum” or “Escape from the Planet of the Influencers,” I hope that they’re epic.
“Influencers” will be released on Shudder on Dec. 12.