Leo out
Replace Leonardo DiCaprio with a late 20-something hyper-online vlogger/influencer and fast forward 20 years from the events of “The Beach” and voilà: you have “Influencer”. Many elements in the new Shudder original are identical: Thailand as a backdrop, young good-looking people searching for themselves, eerie feelings of something bad about to happen and, of course, a deserted island.
It’s a reasonably entertaining thriller, even though it does less than expected when it comes to raising questions about our social media habits and where we’re going as a society. No revelations to find here. If you live in Thailand it does however increase the watchability slightly, as it is fun to do some location scouting in reverse.
Locations
Here are some of the locations we recognized:
Sky Dream Villa
Yes, if you’ve seen the movie already, this is THAT villa.
If you want to stay in this villa, even after seeing what happened here in the movie, it’s actually on Airbnb:
More info on the official website for Sky Dream Villa
Chillva Market, Phuket
The girls hang out at this market in Phuket town.
Banyan Tree, Phuket
I’m fairly sure that the first hotel the main character stays at is Banyan Tree in Phuket:
Influencing
More info about the hotel on their website: Banyan Tree
Vertigo Rooftop Bar, Banyan Tree, Bangkok
Another Banyan Tree location (talk about influencing). The Lebua sky bar already had its time in the spotlight in the Hangover movie, time for Vertigo to shine:
The girls are here just before having a “follow-that-TukTuk”-moment.
Bottle Beach Viewpoint, Koh Phangan
A beautiful viewpoint on the Koh Phangan. Well worth the hike!
Bottle Beach Viewpoint on Google Maps
Any interesting locations that I missed? Let me know on Twitter
Do you know what beach this is?