🔗 Share this article

“Everything about this stinks like a cheap made-for-TV,” observes a cynical podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee whose outlandish story he once said he trusted. But his description of the events in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of films on demand chronicling a young woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is just how superior it proves to be compared to much of its competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers a degree of ambiguity, as returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that someone ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted influencer in a place with no technology and see if they can survive. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment afforded one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion over her version of the events, including the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a right-wing-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in the part, which seems particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a story of rival investigators, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase or evade each other. Of course, perhaps the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore posh places without paying much, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating stunning locations to film, though they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. Most of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that lingers even when numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of people looking at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise appear so persistently lavish for decades: Indeed, big action and visual effects can show off a big budget, but simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. It’s also especially fitting for a story so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed against the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it is gratifying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to hope she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced while on supposedly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other doofuses; he resists turning into a caricature the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not someone exploited by it.

The other side of this balanced approach is that it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without investigating them. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title for the film could offer devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film does eventually provide that, with a suitably wild final act. But before that, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. Our society might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.