Producer Taylor Nodrick Discusses the Indie Horror Hit Influencers
Cassandra Naud in Influencers.
Director and writer Kurtis David Harder's newest film, Influencers, is a follow-up to his smash hit Influencer. Influencers sees the return of the cunning sociopath CW (played by Cassandra Naud), now living in France with her girlfriend Diane (played by Lisa Delamar), who has no idea who CW really is. To celebrate their one-year anniversary, the couple go on a getaway to France, which is upended by a British influencer named Charlotte (played by Georgina Campbell), who quickly puts a dent in their anniversary plans. As Charlotte becomes more and more intrusive, CW goes back to her old violent ways, which threatens to tear her new life apart. The sequel ventures into delightfully more unhinged territory, is packed with deft twists and turns, and features some stunning locations (the film was shot across Bali, Canada, and France). Fans of the first film will thoroughly enjoy the sequel.
After Influencers hit the red carpet at the Calgary International Film Festival, REVERIE chatted with producer Taylor Nodrick about the film.
“It is definitely the hardest thing I have ever done, but it was also the most beautiful thing I have ever done,” says Nodrick. “It was so cool to be in that small group of people and be with them for so long. It was awesome because you get to know each other really well… We were in Bali, and we had a lot of work to get done, but also had time to go on an adventure, see cool places, and be on holiday together too.”
Nodrick was not involved with the making of the first film, but when he first watched Influencer at the Calgary Underground Film Festival (CUFF) he really loved it. This led to him becoming close friends with Harder and getting involved as one of the producers for the sequel. “I was really impressed by the technical production and how they were able to pull it off, and I wasn’t even aware of how small the budget of a movie that Influencer was when I saw it,” reflects Nodrick. “What I was really impressed by was that you can make a really dumb movie called Influencer,” he says. “[You could make a film that] really punches down and says like ‘we really hate this online culture.’ I was pleasantly surprised by the different turn it took and the whole thesis it has: that who you are online is not who you are in real life... It was a really interesting and exciting way to take a movie, and your average filmmaker probably wouldn’t push it that way with an ‘influencer movie.’ You see that in a lot of things, where influencers are just these vapid, one-dimensional people through and through, so having that extra layer of complexity was really exciting. Then Shadow Of God came around, and Kurt and I ended up working together, and the two of us really hit it off… When Influencers came about, he was like ‘Hey, we need one or two more people. Do you want to come to Bali to help?’ I was like, ‘Fuck yeah, dude.’”
Harder initially never planned to do a sequel to Influencer, however, after the success of the first film, ideas for a sequel started forming. “He wrote the first 30 pages and sent it to some people, including me, and was like ‘Should I finish this?’ and the interest was there,” says Nodrick. “We’re in a world that is moving so fast technologically, and just the way social media and AI and all these concepts have evolved rapidly since the first [film], it just feels like there is a lot of new ground to cover. A lot has changed, and there is a lot more in the social consciousness. It was a really exciting way to keep moving forward with it. On set, we were joking, ‘Things are moving so fast, it's like the time this comes out is all the technology that is cutting edge right now, is it gonna be old news and out of date?’ I think we hit a good spot, though, where a lot of what we are talking about is still really relevant and in the zeitgeist.”
Nodrick shares with me that the casting process for Influencers was a very “organic grassroots approach,” with most of the casting being based on sending over a text message, a friend of a friend, or getting recommendations from people. An example of this is the casting of Dylan Playfair. “Dylan and Kurt have been friends for a long time… I think Kurt more or less always had Dylan in mind for that part.”
Since Influencers had such a small number of cast and crew attached to the project, Nodrick had multiple duties besides just being the film’s producer. “It was kind of splitting the duties of what 10 or 12 people would typically do, so we are doing our typical producer work like figuring out logistics and searching locations, but I wound up doing basically art department all by myself and helping Chris [Ball, another producer] with prop stuff, offloading footage and many other things,” he says. “What exactly a producer was on this movie was pretty much anything that someone else wasn’t doing, and then hash it out between us. Every time I’ve done an indie movie, you end up wearing multiple hats as a producer, but this was definitely the entire hat store and getting a sampling of it.”
Wearing multiple hats is something Nodrick has done for a while now, including producing, directing, writing, acting, editing, working as a grip, and more. “I did my due diligence and just took every opportunity I could to get on set,” he says. “I know people who I went to film school with that were like ‘Oh no, I only want to be a director, so I'm not gonna do anything else,’ and I’m like ‘Well, that seems shortsighted.’” By jumping at every opportunity to be involved on a movie set, he has built numerous connections that have helped him further his career. “Within the last year with Shadow Of God, CAMP, and Influencers lining up in a row, I got my hand in producing, and that’s kind of where I’m at at the moment. Now that I’m there, I’m still trying to find time to work on my own stuff as a writer and director on the side. I actually like producing more than I ever anticipated I would, so I don’t see myself ever see myself backing out of producing and not doing that anymore. I really like working with my friends, supporting them, and helping them make their stuff just as much as I like making mine. The art department is the same; given the opportunity, I can do something in the art department. I think we got back from France, and we had two or three weeks before going to Vancouver to do the last unit, and Brandon Christensen’s movie Night Of The Reaper was shooting here in Calgary, and I was able to go and hop on and help the art department.”
Having gained experience in numerous areas, Nodrick has learned valuable lessons that he applies to every new project. “You learn something new on every project, so one of the reasons why I like doing this is you are never solving the same problem twice, but you’re maybe solving a problem that looks like a problem you’ve solved before,” he says. “Influencers is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, like tenfold. We were in Bali, a place where we don’t speak the language, with a small amount of people trying to pull off something huge. I mean, it's more of just reps to get yourself in the headspace that no matter how big things are, you can get through it and just figure it out, and the only way out is through… If you just stick with it and don’t give up, and keep doing it, the big takeaway from doing any of this, is the resilience that you need to build.”
Streaming service Shudder holds the distribution rights for the film Influencers. Keep your eyes peeled!