Influencer

A young woman murders online influencers in Thailand and steals their money.

This feature-length thriller has a screenplay that moves from one character to the other. It begins with an American online celebrity named Madison (Tennant) who travels to Thailand for business as well as leisure. There she meets CW (Naud), another foreign woman and the two of them form a friendship. However, Madison's hotel room is burgled and her passport is stolen. Stranded in Thailand while she waits for a temporary passport, CW offers to take her on a tour around the country. CW's true intentions are brought to light when she takes Madison to a remote small island via boat and leaves her there to die. As CW pursues her next victim, another online celebrity named Jessica (Canning), things get complicated with the unexpected arrival of Ryan (Saper), Madison's boyfriend.

As mentioned the story goes from one character to another, allowing the viewers to see the events from their perspective, kind of like Psycho. Initially, it is assumed that Madison is the main character, then she falls victim to CW's vile scheme and things then focus on exploring how she takes over her victims' online accounts in order to acquire their money and how she searches for new ones through social media, eventually choosing Jessica and trying to lure her into another trap. Then Ryan shows up and the audience follows him as he starts being a detective, attempting to locate Madison.

As well as being a story about a criminal and her victims, the film explores the world of online influencers and points out the dangers of being a social media celebrity, how people can find out information about them and use them in order to commit fraud.

CW makes a rather intriguing character and she is played superbly by Naud. A foreigner living in Thailand, preying on online influencers so she can gain their trust, murder them and get their money. She is basically a loner and a ruthless, cunning and remorseless individual living a life of luxury due to her crimes.

It should be pointed out that the opening credits do not begin until approximately twenty-five minutes after the film has started. This is not necessarily a negative thing, just unusual and therefore awkward.

The feature is supported significantly by Harder's skilful directing that includes some wonderful establishing shots that reveal the beauty of Thailand and David Schuurman's stunning cinematography is a big plus.

This is a dark story about murder, deception and cybercrime. It is an entertaining psychological thriller whose highest qualities are the suspense, the interesting plot and Naud's character.