“The Influencer Project” (2026) follows Chiara King, an actual Instagram influencer who leaves her home in the United Kingdom to spend seven days in Copenhagen to cash in on some lucrative brand deals and star in a tourism film, “Welcome Copenhagen.” Her plans get derailed when she starts receiving direct messages from king_slayer_x99 (Alexandre Willaume). The message threatens that if she does not stop posting, he will rape and kill her. When she does not obey, her follower count skyrockets while the man in the goggles and chainmail mask gets closer. Who will win the hearts and minds of the followers? Not anyone who watches the movie that almost has nothing to recommend it.
Maybe “The Influencer Project” will work for moviegoers unfamiliar with Denmark and just associate European accents with sinister villain types. Unlike Sweden, home of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” Denmark is known as a safe place. So safe that people leave their babies in their carriages on the sidewalk when they go into stores. Movies are fiction so naturally Danish filmmakers have a right to dip a toe into horror, but perhaps it would be more credible if they stuck to horrors that are more endemic to one of the nicest places on Earth: colonialism and immigration. It requires Herculean levels of suspension of disbelief to buy into the idea of a violent, effective Danish stalker from an outsider’s perspective.
The point of these horror genres, a combination of a screenlife, found footage, and pseudo-documentary, is to get the vicarious thrill of seeing the impossible, getting close to danger, and getting a peek into people’s secret lives. Most of “The Influencer Project” shows the world of an influencer, which is already visible and omnipresent, so this movie is mostly redundant, boring and monotonous. It feels like watching a commercial except they’re selling King. Other than the money, King, who is a real-life influencer, not an actor, does not make this life appealing before the threats start rolling in. It feels like watching someone’s itinerary list come to life.
Occasionally other online personalities act like a Greek chorus commenting on the story’s dangerous developments, but they make King seem like a comparative thespian with their stilted delivery. Small screen fame does not always translate when magnified to a bigger screen. As if the audience does not suffer enough with the lack of professional actors, there is a storyline about her trying to jumpstart her singing career and a cameo from Gustav Wolter, a Danish singer, songwriter and guitarist. Jesus wept. I was unaware that I asked for an American Idol: Danish version, and they released a song connected to the film, “We’re Not There.” Should I never get trusted to make decisions again? Maybe, but the saving grace is I did not pay to see it. The other good news is that King’s vocal talents are not memorable, so she is not bad or good, just a human being with a dream. Let’s hope that she gets to move the needle in a positive direction.
Alice (Jazmine Summer) is King’s agent, and it is unfortunate how obvious the story’s trajectory will be based on their interviews together. At the airport, Chiara receives a greeting from Anna Kjeldsen (Gemma Karlsen), a Welcome to Copenhagen representative who never is relevant to the plot, and the crew that Chiara will be working with, but are barely differentiated. The real-life director, Mike Nybroe, casts himself as the director of the promotional tourist documentary because what “The Influencer Project” needs is more people who do not act professionally. Victor (Luca Storm) has an unclear role in between working on the documentary then holding hands with King before things get really tense. Victor is simultaneously so underwritten and pivotal that it makes every scene feel more like improv than well considered. There is a long list of brand promoters (Baum und Pferdgarten, Jane Køning, Bareen, ROTATE Birger Christensen) who meet with King, but no brand name standouts that an American audience would recognize. When Chiara goes partying, how does she know these people? Does she meet them there? Are they professional partiers who will get assigned to anyone who comes through the door? The filmmakers confuse the movie’s premise with the audience’s interest in the film. We are not prospective tourists, and if tourism was the real point, it failed because it never shows the country’s best features, its history, culture and ordinary people.
“The Influencer Project” buries the lead that Chiara is famous for (drum roll) YouTube videos of going to haunted houses except they are not haunted houses, but notorious historical sites. “People enjoy seeing me in pain,” Chiara says with absolutely zero foreboding (not). The tone shift from glossy Instagram influencer to “Shelby Oaks” (2024) is so wild that it causes whiplash, and not the kind that come with Miles Teller on drums while J.K. Simmons yells at him. The mix is so incongruous and is uneven in its delivery to the audience. In real life, Chiara is famous for (checks notes) short form comedy. Here is an idea: play to her strengths then the wild shift would be unnerving, not ridiculous. It does not help that these haunted house tour scenes are indiscernible on a television screen (I saw a screener of the movie, not in the theater), which was a problem that “Game of Thrones” had, and they had more resources so no shame because it happens to the best in production, but when a movie has so little going for it, every mistake is not a nail in the coffin, it is another shovel full of dirt thrown on top.
Is “The Influencer Project” scary? Sadly no. There is a scene at Copenhagen’s largest indoor flea market, Loppemarked i Bella, which just makes everyone seem stupid for not catching the killer. The score in this scene provides more horror, but of the unintentional kind because it sounds so awful. Now rinse and repeat that concept periodically through the movie. It is actually realistic that if there is a clear exit and a bunch of men try to stop them, but are unaccustomed to tackling a potentially violent person, that person could get away. Realism has its limits and can make the proceedings boring really fast; however, if you suffer from insomnia, it will do the trick. The scariest scene is a hotel sequence, and despite knowing that she has a stalker, Chiara still goes towards the potential danger because apparently depicting her as dumb as toast will make her more endearing. Please do her some favors and make Chiara as a character into someone easier to root for. She has a life outside of this movie!
“The Influencer Project” could have worked as a PSA about the tribulations that content creators face thanks to an all too brief cameo from Maia Kahlke Lorentzen, a real-life researcher in online behavior and harassment, who is the best part of the movie. If this movie had potential, it was taking a less sensational approach and putting Chiara in the center of it. What a missed opportunity! Instead Lorentzen provides clues on the denouement’s revelations. Following her appearance, a tepid empowerment sequence, which begins with Jon Østergaard coaching Chiara in kickboxing, includes Ole Eskling, a board member of the Dark Sky Møn project, who actually does provide some inspirational words while promoting astrotourism and reducing synthetic light (“half our lives are spent in the dark…..stars shine brightest in the dark”), and introduces Rasmus Karlsson (Eos Karlsson), an intense security expert, which is as accurate as the following three words: German Democratic Republic.
“The Influencer Project” ending may be enough to satisfy people because the bodies pile up rapidly, Chiara is in peril, and all the surprises are saved to the end, but by the time that the moviegoer gets there, they may no longer care. There is a shameless plug for a sequel that no one in their right mind would want. Also, an afterthought, eleventh hour implicit chiding of the fickleness of the masses in the age of social media holds promise. If that thread was explored consistently throughout the story instead of at the bookends, maybe the movie could have worked. Instead, it may only appeal to people like Pete Davidson who believes that the ills of the world stem at the feet of ordinary girls and women who found unlikely popularity online while oblivious to his own unlikely popularity embodied in his most quotable skit as Chad where he simply says “Okay.” Well, not fair because he is also talented for (checks notes) dating rich and famous women. (I am one of the few critics who liked “The Home,” so don’t come for me.)
Horror fans looking for a fright, even those such as myself who grade on a generous curve when it comes to found footage and pseudo documentaries, should run away from, not just skip, “The Influencer Project.” It is not good. Fortunately, as bad as it is, Denmark is the opposite but visit in the warmer months unless you enjoy winter conditions.
