10 Recent Horror Reveals Nobody Was Ready For

7. Madison Was Still Alive - Influencer

Chucky Nica Fiona Dourif
Shudder

A Shudder Original that arrived this past May, Kurtis David Harder's Influencer has several twists and turns across its brisk 90 minutes. Not least, in how it has one of modern-day horror's great final act reveals.

With a clear message about social media and the never-ending quest for likes, the movie initially focuses on Emily Tennant's Madison, an influencer in Thailand to garner more online engagement and to please her plentiful sponsors. While Madison is all smiles for her content, the depressing reality is that she's bored, lonely, misses her boyfriend Ryan, and spends most of her day killing time in a lavish hotel room.

That is, until Madison is befriended by CW (Cassandra Naud).

An outgoing sort, CW encourages Madison that not everything has to be done for social media purposes. For example, isn't it better to eat your food when it's hot, rather than it be lukewarm because you've spent time taking photos of it?

One such outgoing adventure sees the pair take a boat out to a remote island, where CW ultimately abandons Madison and takes over her life. The shocked social media sensation is life to die barely 25 minutes into the film, and from there the attention switches to CW doing the same to another influencer and then eventually killing Madison's boyfriend.

After an hour of underhand shenanigans, CW heads back out to the previous island to dump Ryan's body... only to shockingly realise that Madison is still alive nearly four weeks after she was left to die in isolation. This brilliant reveal is followed by Madison turning the tables, stealing CW's boat and leaving her on the remote island.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.