Influencers is the follow-up to the breakout 2023 thriller Influencer, written and directed by Kurtis David Harder. As one of the most creative new voices in genre filmmaking, Harder’s films blend psychological horror with sharp observations about identity, technology, and the personas we pretend to be online. But for screenwriters, what’s most exciting about Harder’s work is the way he uses structure, character, and even production constraints to surprise audiences who’ve “seen everything.”
We sat down with Harder to talk about his unconventional approach to structure, his two-time collaboration with actress Cassandra Naud, and why genre writers should resist playing it safe.
His Late Love Affair with Horror
Though he’s now known for stylish thrillers like Spiral and Incontrol, Harder admits he was a late bloomer when it came to the horror genre.
“I obviously watched the classics, The Shining and stuff,” he says. “But it wasn’t until my early 20s that I started kind of falling for it. And now here we are.”
Harder is keenly aware that the “influencer horror” subgenre is booming with popular films like Superhost and Skincare. He also understands the temptation to parody the social media stars, but that’s not what interests him.
“For me, it’s more, ‘Hate the game, not the player,’” he says. “The ones that I’ve met that are successful, they work very, very hard. I think they’re an easy scapegoat.”
His fascination is with identity: the expertly designed online persona versus the messy reality beneath it. That’s why Cassandra Naud’s character CW – who returns in Influencers – remains mysterious despite two full movies exploring her psyche.
“There’s a big part of her character that is the masks she puts on,” Harder says. “When you start to remove those masks, how far does it go back?”
This thematic obsession drives both films, but Harder isn’t interested in over-explaining CW’s past traumas. “We’d kind of mapped her backstory out for ourselves,” he says, “but I left a lot of that in Cassandra’s court.”
For screenwriters, it’s a reminder that mystery can be used as a tool to hook audiences.
Killing Linear Structure
One of the boldest choices in Influencers is the late pivot to Madison’s (Emily Tennant) point of view. Madison is a character that CW left for dead on an island in the first film. She shows up unexpectedly at the beginning of the second act in the new film and we begin to follow her narrative. It’s a bold choice that Harder made on purpose.
“With modern audiences, they’ve seen everything,” he says. “They know what to look for when a twist is coming. So, for me, it’s always like, how can you actually surprise an audience?”
He cites Hitchcock’s Psycho as inspiration. Both Influencer films use long opening scenes, unexpected shifts in POV, and non-linear timelines to keep viewers off balance.
“It’s very much playing with structure,” he says. “Seeing how we can still surprise the audience in a new way.”
This approach carried into writing the sequel. The first act, set in southern France, where CW is living an idyllic life with her new love, Diane (Lisa Delamar), came to him quickly.
“I wrote the first 30 pages in a couple days,” he says. “I sent it out to everybody and said, ‘Is this something we should finish?’”
With CW’s character hook in place (i.e. how exactly did CW get off that island from the first film?), he built the rest of the script around questions he didn’t immediately answer. “I knew where the film was going but having those questions was really fun.”
Letting Locations Shape the Writing
One of the most interesting aspects of Harder’s process is how often he allows production realities to influence the script.
As a writer-director, he embraces discovery. “When we find these locations, it can be very inspirational,” he says. “There’s a sense of flexibility. When we find something really cool, we can change it, we can evolve.”
That pool-ball attack scene was inspired by the location. And the stiletto kill in the first film? “We came up with that basically the day of!” he says.
Even one of the sequel’s most striking images, the fireworks over Finn’s Beach Club, was a total accident. “We had one chance to get it,” Harder says. “It became one of my favorite shots of the film.”
Harder’s approach is a reminder not to cling so tightly to what’s on the page that you miss what the real world is offering you.
Writing Horror Without Playing It Safe
The biggest mistake Harder sees in horror scripts and movies is a totally avoidable one.
“I think playing it safe,” he says. “You can feel if someone is just following the trend of what you expect a horror film to be.”
He warns writers against repeating clichés or recycling scares. “If we see that over and over again, it’s like, how are you going to stand out?”
Instead, he encourages writers to push boundaries, ask better questions, and write to their own taste, not to trends.
“It really goes back to Tarantino’s advice: Writing the kind of movie that you want to go to the cinema for.”
The Practical Advice Emerging Writers Need
Harder understands the realities of emerging screenwriters: getting reps, getting read, getting noticed. But his advice is refreshingly counterintuitive.
“You always get the advice that’s like, ‘Write something that takes place in one house. It’ll be easier to produce.’ I’ve always kind of done the opposite,” he laughs.
For him, the key is authenticity and passion. “Writing what you know, the kind of movies that you want to watch, is so important.”
Because if you’re excited about your script, others will be too.
Is There a Third 'Influencer' Film Coming?
Harder laughs, but he doesn’t say no. “My answer now is, tell your friends about this one, and we’ll see what we can do.”
Influencers streams December 12 on AMC+ and Shudder, shortly after the first Influencer debuts on Netflix.