Mikes Film Talk

The 2022 film Influencer is, as the title suggests, all about social media. It is also about murder and mayhem in Thailand. Eli Roth would be proud. This tale of a naive world traveler coming in contact with evil may not be on the level of Hostel. It is, however, all about being a stranger in a strange land.

The Story

Social media influencer on her way up Madison is traveling through Thailand alone. Her boyfriend bailed at the last moment. Lonely, she still parades sponsored products in front of the camera. Her travelogue is almost complete.

Enter CW. She inserts herself into Madison’s life and act as last minute guide and saviour.

She is not either of these things.

The main cast

Emily Tennant is Madison. An unwilling participant in a social media travelogue in Thailand after her boyfriend bails.

Rory J Saper is Ryan, said boyfriend. He plans on joining Madison soon.

Cassandra Naud is CW. A beautiful “saviour” who steps in to help Madison. Her motives are, however, nefarious at best.

Sara Canning is Jessica, another social media influencer. Unlike Madison, though, she is more world wise.

Paul Spurrier is barfly Rupert. Ex pat and contender for the Gary Glitter award, maybe.

Behind the scenes

Canadian director Kurtis David Harder co-writes this one with Tesh Guttikonda and the two have given us a pretty impressive psychological thriller.

Tapping into the current trend of documenting ones world travels on Social Media to “win friends, influence people and make money.” Everyone wants to be a star and be in their own productions.

The characters may not be much more than two dimensional cutouts but for CW this works very well.

It works

Influencer does work on many levels. The characters are not too deep but this works to the film’s advantage. We are kept off kilter by the oddness of the setting and the folks inhabiting it.

Rupert at the bar, CW and the total lack of people at the beach/resort settings make us uncomfortable. Madison, as the main protagonist as the start is hard to read. We mistake her discomfort for boredom and dissatisfaction at her current profession.

CW immediately zeroes in on her new mark. Once again, we are not sure of her motives but those of us who travel, distrust her immediately.

I kept waiting for “re-appearances.” If I say anymore than that spoilers will occur. So we will leave it at that. When you watch Influencer you will hopefully catch my meaning.

The Verdict

Influencers was a film that was hard not to watch. Once you got into the story, the slow pace did not matter. It is not an overly long movie at 1 hour and 32 minutes, and it was not a film that lagged too badly.

I can easily give this a 3.5 stars for effort. There was no real surprise ending here, but it filled that “horror” void leading up to Halloween. It is streaming on AMC + via Shudder.

The Trailer