INFLUENCERS (2025)

Written & Directed By: Kurtis David Harder 

Cinematography: David Schuurman 

Editor: Rob Grant 

Cast: Casandra Naud, Emily Tennent, Georgina Campbell, Veronica Long, Lisa Delamar, Jon Whitesell, Dylan Playfair, Liam James Collins, Nalani Wakita 

In Southern France, a young woman’s chilling fascination with murder and identity theft sends her life into a whirlwind of chaos.

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A sequel to the 2022 movie INFLUENCER, I will honestly say I didn’t see coming back for a round two.

At times, the film could easily be seen as a female version of THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY  only less tortured and more about the method less about the past or the characters history. Only lacking the depths or literary origins in history while being more modern.

As both involve main characters constantly having to change their identities and operate in foreign locals and are not above murder to get what they want.

This film is like HOSTEL 2, Where it’s more about the main characters methods and work. Rather than necessarily, adding too much to the game.  As we are still dealing with the main characters from the last film, but throw in a few new characters to complicate things a bit and also level up.

This at a heart is a socially conscious commentary slasher. Where we get the survivors of the last film, facing each other again by the end, in a knockout drag out fight, that feels like it releases all the tension that the film builds up in the first place. Which it seemed to be holding back from until this moment. 

This is a franchise that gets less intricate, but gets bigger with each addition. As this is a proper sequel offering an opening. That is a little bit random and shocking wondering how we got there in the film fits it all in piece by piece.

As we don’t even get the opening credits until 30 minutes into the film. As everything before, it is a kind of where are they now prologue of people from the previous film and how they are continuing their legacy. 

The sequel definitely raises the stakes, but doesn’t make it feel far-fetched or ridiculous.  As it is just as layered and diabolical as our slasher, though not a bit above some exploitative means. 

This is a smart thriller that dabbles in the tawdry, but plays like a chess match. a basic one that rises to the top and goes overboard in the last 15 minutes. 

Where it just ends up being fun where you root for the villain. as well as other characters. it’s kind of like the horror film SMILE, where the first one comes out and it’s in one style and then the sequel comes out, and raises the stakes, as well as the bar. but is just as good if not better than the first film, even though you kind of need the first film to fully understand the stakes in the characters and the situations in full. Then towards the end, just chooses to go off the wall, but it still feels within the realm a reality of the film.

Now, this is a film that Many could get behind it as its victims are usually influencers as a kind of DEATH WISH or FALLING DOWN for the next generation. Is the kind of dark vengeful which fulfillment.

Grade: B