REVIEW: Influencer [2023]

Rating: NR | Runtime: 92 minutes
Release Date: May 26th, 2023 (USA)
Studio: Shudder
Director(s): Kurtis David Harder
Writer(s): Tesh Guttikonda & Kurtis David Harder

Everything is so much better now that I’ve decided to stay.

With the opening credits not arriving on-screen until the twenty-five-minute mark, director Kurtis David Harder and co-writer Tesh Guttikonda’s Influencer isn’t as straightforward as you may assume. Because despite starting out from Madison’s (Emily Tennant) perspective, it isn’t even her story. She’s instead an unsuspecting guide putting us onto the main narrative—a catalyst who simultaneously acts as the real focal point’s unwitting target and indirect adversary.

Madison is a social media shill struggling to have fun in paradise because her boyfriend and quasi-agent Ryan (Rory J Saper) bailed at the eleventh hour. CW (Cassandra Naud) notices this isolation. Feeds off it. CW not only befriends her, she “saves” her. All to inevitably steal her money and leverage her clout for added comfort, knowing the world won’t miss Madison if she disappears. Not if the “brand” soldiers on. That’s all they’ve ever truly cared about anyway.

What CW can’t foresee, however, is that not every influencer is as grotesquely vapid as their online personas might portray. It’s a gig to some. A role played to reap the rewards. And the sheer fact that Madison is so obviously depressed and conflicted should be a red flag. Because the money and fame aren’t enough. This career isn’t what she wanted from her life as much as a byproduct of what her life with Ryan had become.

As such, the bulk of the runtime actually follows CW contending with the unexpected fallout of stealing said life from Madison. Experiencing what happens when one of her supposedly plastic victims ends up proving to have had enough love to not be forgotten after all. And I will tell you straight-up that I’m mad at Harder and Guttikonda for making me kind of like Ryan as their expression of that truth. He’s horrible, but he does care.

The result is a well-executed thriller wherein we’re allowed to check our compassion at the door. CW’s newest mark is everything she assumed Madison to be (Sara Canning’s Jessica), so we don’t necessarily worry about her well-being (I’ll admit my complicity in relishing her potential demise) as much as accept her place as that figure in the puzzle.

Ryan is a tool despite genuinely wanting to know why Madison dropped off the map (even if it’s probably half out of love and half out of vindictive pride). And CW is the clear-cut villain even if the proverbial noose is tightening around her neck as this trio’s actions and suspicions begin to expose just how difficult it is to cover your tracks when the internet is so crucial to the lives of those who made them. There’s no one to therefore root for, so we bask in the potential carnage to see who (if anyone) escapes alive.

My favorite part, though, is the filmmakers’ choice to let their characters breathe in the moment. Every conversation is natural. Every impulse to question a stranger’s motives is valid. Whereas this type of film generally feels reversed engineered from its conclusion, Influencer builds and diverts. It reacts to the characters rather than forcing them to react to the plot. That’s why it doesn’t feel weird when perspective shifts (Ryan even gets to be the lead for the third act) or obvious when surprises are unveiled.

Throwaway lines are throwaways until they’re not, instead of blatant foreshadowing to fixate on. Maybe CW will win. Maybe Ryan will save the day. Maybe it’ll be a bit of both. It honestly doesn’t matter because our expectations are curbed by blind investment. We’re just enjoying the ride, no matter where it leads. That shouldn’t be refreshing, and yet recent Hollywood pap ensures it is.