“You don’t get lonely, traveling all alone? It seems risky. Nobody really knows where you are.”

In the sun-drenched countryside of southern France, CW (Cassandra Naud) lives a quiet, idyllic life with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar), hiding a dark obsession with murder and stolen identities. During an anniversary getaway, they cross paths with Charlotte (Georgina Campbell), a bold, alluring influencer whose curiosity quickly turns intrusive. When CW acts on a violent impulse, the consequences spiral out of control, and as Diane begins to suspect the truth, CW’s carefully constructed life threatens to collapse around her.

With Influencers, Kurtis David Harder offers a sequel to Influencer (no “s”) that forgets to answer the most essential question… He still delivers successful entertainment that imagines what AI could become.

Lack of realism and explanations

Just before watching Influencers, I watched Influencer, the first installment. And as is generally the case, the first one surpasses the sequel. It’s not that the second one isn’t enjoyable or surprising, but rather that there are major gaps in terms of realism (or credibility, if you will) and explanations that give meaning to the story.

Given the finale of the first film, one would have expected explanations for CW’s return. Yes, the viewer can assume certain things, but given the situation she finds herself in, a few explanations would have been a good addition to the second movie. Especially given how Influencers is constructed, the viewer remains in uncertainty at the beginning of the film about when the story is taking place.

We also get the impression that everything is too easy. So, there are no police officers interested in these disappearances? This was a point that bothered me a little in the first one, but I told myself that in Thailand, the disappearance of a foreign influencer was possibly not a priority. That it could be accepted. But in France, it is less credible.

Very current fears

The lack of credibility extends to the technological aspect. It is, once again, the excessive ease with which CW uses technology to deceive people that doesn’t sit well. Yes, some technologies exist. And yes, I understand that the director is having fun imagining what AI technologies will be in a year or two. But what is shown to us is far too simple. It reminds me of those 1990s films where you’d see a person completely outsmart a powerful security system by typing a few words on a black screen. It’s more complex than that. And even if it’s normal to simplify things in a movie, sometimes it’s simplified too much. This is the case here with the technologies used.

That being said, it is interesting to see how films of this genre are inspired by the real fears of the times in which they are made. If Japan was inspired by the fear of the nuclear bomb to invent Godzilla, Kurtis David Harder is inspired by the arrival of artificial intelligence and our lack of knowledge about it to create a feeling of fear in the viewer.

We see more and more phone scams using AI-generated voices. The director pushes it a little further by using not only the voice but also face replacement. This technology is very real and works very well. And it is accessible to anyone with a little experience with digital technologies. But the live aspect is part of the work’s fiction side. But for how long? This is where the director plays with current fears. When will we be worried about talking to a loved one via video? Maybe it will happen soon. Or not… But the idea is good in a movie.

A little more…

If in the first film we tended to like CW and almost wanted to see her succeed, in the second we lose that. And that’s unfortunate, because the other characters are not so easy to like. Honestly, there is something satisfying about seeing unscrupulous influencers get killed. I know, it’s terrible to say. But a large part of these people are vermin ready to do anything to make a buck.

The director also had the good idea of including masculinists in his movie. You know, those men who denigrate women and openly say they are inferior beings? We could have pushed this part further, but introducing it like this is a good idea. We have the leisure to find these people pathetic, and that’s good.

Ultimately, Influencers remains a pleasant film to watch. A fun little thriller that should please a wide audience.

Trailer