A Perfect Horror Sequel [Fantasia 2025]

Kurtis David Harder and Cassandra Naud are back in the visually stunning and viscerally tense Influencers, the sequel to their 2022 hit, Influencer. This time, Harder crafts a pitch-perfect horror sequel that delves deeper into Naud’s villainous CW while delivering a devastating emotional core all about a violent woman who just wants to be loved. 

Influencers opens with a gorgeous young woman slitting her own throat in a gorgeous villa after receiving devastating news. As her body falls to the ground, and knowing what we know about what unfolded in Influencer, one question flashes in your mind: What did CW do this time?

Then, we flash to CW, who seems to have escaped from that desert island and has made her way back to land to build a new life for herself. Now, she’s Catherine, and she’s in a seemingly loving relationship with Diane (Lisa Delamar). It seems she’s been able to be good for a few years, laying low and avoiding any influencers as much as possible. But then, a trip to the south of France for their first anniversary throws everything into chaos.

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When they arrive, they almost immediately meet an influencer, Charlotte (Georgina Campbell), who’s taken a larger room just for herself at the resort, meaning that CW and Diane have been bumped to smaller accommodations. And that just won’t do for CW. Charlotte has drawn her attention, and a nice vacation spirals into something much worse. From there, Influencers only continue to build into something deliciously explosive. To reveal it all here would ruin all of the surprises Harder has in store here. 

At first, Influencers feels like a very different movie where we’re watching a serial killer trying to get by with clipped wings, so to speak. But just when I was starting to doubt the direction the film was going, Harder twists the narrative on its head as he is wont to do, heightening the film’s stakes and creating a fascinating game of cat-and-mouse through Europe. Harder ensures to take what happened in Influencer and build on it to not only tie up some loose ends, but also to heighten the stakes to something you’d see in a blockbuster action thriller.

Naud once again shines as CW, weaponizing her slight, femme frame to craft your worst nightmare in human form. When she’s with Diane, Naud really does let CW shine, smiling bigger and more genuinely than we’ve ever seen from the character. There’s a levity and light around her that’s sadly suffocated by her dark, obsessive needs. Both Harder’s script and Naud’s performance bring CW’s character to new heights that highlight her complexity as a character, but never forgive or excuse her violent actions.

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Just like in Influencer, Harder works again with cinematographer David Schuurman to capture even more gorgeous visuals that make these films so lush and feel so vast and epic in scope. This doesn’t feel like an indie movie whatsoever, especially with cinematography like this. It’s always impressive to see what indie filmmakers can accomplish with limited budgets, and Harder and his team prove what a sleek experience they can deliver even with such limitations.

At this point, I’d watch several seasons and ten more movies about CW’s murderous antics around the world. Harder and Naud have made something special here, and with Influencers, they’ve proved it’s not just lightning in a bottle. Expanding the scope and developing CW’s character into something much more complex and almost sympathetic makes this a stellar sequel that filmmakers of all budget levels can learn from. 

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