There’s a narrative everybody loves on this business about James Cameron and his pitch for the film “Aliens.” It goes like this: Cameron, in a gathering with studio executives, wrote the title of Ridley Scott’s basic sci-fi horror film “Alien” on a chunk of paper. Then he wrote the letter “s” on the finish. Then he added two vertical strains, reworking the “s” right into a greenback signal. The remainder, as they are saying, is historical past.
It’s an amazing story, however you possibly can’t duplicate it, are you able to? In some way I doubt John Singleton pitched “2 Quick 2 Livid” by drawing a few “2’s” on the poster for “The Quick and the Livid.” However I’ll make an exception whereas imagining the pitch for Kurtis David More durable’s “Influencers,” the sequel to his personal improbable 2022 social media thriller. Should you informed me he walked into an workplace, wrote the phrase “Influencer” on a dry erase board, then slapped the Shudder “s” emblem on the tip, I’d consider you.
“Influencer” starred Cassandra Naud as CW, a girl who stalks social media influencers, lures them to a abandoned island off the coast of Thailand, and leaves them there to die. In the meantime she steals their id, makes faux posts to trick the followers into pondering they’re alive, and strikes on to her subsequent sufferer. More durable’s authentic sticks to her first goal, Madison (Emily Tennant), till CW reveals her sinister intentions. Then we watch as CW’s good plans get screwed over by nosy boyfriends and unhealthy luck, in a Hitchcockian second half that basically turns the screws.
The unique “Influencer” left CW in a really unhealthy place, however each time the sequel asks how she obtained out of that little head-scratcher, Kurtis David More durable makes us really feel jerks for bringing it up. As a result of there’s a sequel, that’s how. Would you like a sequel or not?
I do need a sequel. I need a sequel very a lot, and “Influencers” doesn’t disappoint. The unique “Influencer” was one of many sharpest films of 2022, in additional methods than one. A rip-roaring roast of social media tradition, by the use of Patricia Highsmith, if she had lived to see us make asses of ourselves on Instagram. The sequel provides worthy new targets and will get deeper contained in the twisted head of CW. It spends an excessive amount of time revealing backstory and following up unfastened threads to face by itself, however as an interconnected follow-up, it’s a bloody good time.
Like the unique, “Influencers” begins in mysterious territory, with CW in love with a French girl, Diane (Lisa Delamar). Their anniversary trip will get ruined by, you guessed it, an influencer, and you understand precisely what’s going to occur subsequent. What’s much less clear is whether or not this primary act is a prequel, revealing CW’s origin story, or a sequel, however finally all is revealed and the story bifurcates, catching as much as CW’s newest scheme and catching up with one among her surviving victims, who tracks her everywhere in the world.
Ultimately we meet CW’s new playthings, the misogynistic manosphere influencer Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell) and his ultraconservative girlfriend Ariana (Veronica Lengthy). The hatred they spew is, principally, a grift, which makes them no much less deserving of CW’s wrath. That wrath culminates in a climax that’s horrifying, and slightly extra hilarious than crucial. These “Influencer” films have at all times had a darkish humorousness however “Influencers” finally hits the gasoline on that, driving the tone all the best way to camp. Not that that’s the worst downside on the planet. If nothing else, Cassandra Naud seems to be like she’s having enjoyable.
The genius of those “Influencer” films is that Kurtis David More durable and Cassandra Naud know precisely easy methods to play CW’s villainy. She’s a horrible human being, a villain by any rational commonplace, however she’s intelligent. Extraordinarily intelligent. Audiences can forgive plenty of horrible issues if a personality is intelligent. The one factor we wish greater than CW’s comeuppance is to observe her weasel her means out of it. She’s a splendidly depraved modern-day Tom Ripley. We perceive the place she’s coming from, we all know she’s unforgivable, however we will’t take our eyes away. Even after “Influencers” softens her up a bit, she’s nonetheless mesmerizingly vile.
That being stated, CW’s dastardly deeds are starting to pressure credulity. Her plan in “Influencer” was ingeniously easy. Easy sufficient that it appears bulletproof, however unfastened sufficient to maintain discovering sudden holes. When CW units her plan in movement in “Influencers,” I believe even she’s stunned by how effectively it really works. There’s a particular “somebody up there likes me” high quality to CW’s life story, and that somebody is clearly the movie’s author/director.
Kurtis David More durable’s slick and sly “Influencer” films are a darkish mirror to Paul Feig’s “Easy Favor” movies, with related backdrops and equally twisty tales, however a bleaker world view and much more blood. In the event that they got here out within the Nineteen Nineties they’d have 4K particular editions with fawning essays from movie critics, and if I had my means I’d be one among them. Actually, these days it’s a surprise “Influencer” discovered a sufficiently big viewers to warrant a sequel in any respect, however we’re all fortunate that it did. “Influencers” is a sadistic delight, similar to its predecessor, and if More durable has any pitches for “Influencers 3: Parabellum” or “Escape from the Planet of the Influencers,” I hope that they’re epic.
“Influencers” might be launched on Shudder on Dec. 12.
