🔗 Share this article

“The entire situation smells like a bad made-for-TV,” remarks an opportunistic podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. But his description of what’s happening in the movie isn’t wrong. On its face, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of online influencers before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry but cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers is just how superior it proves to be than plenty of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and covers up those deaths (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and ire.

CW comments to her partner that a person ought to attempt stranding a device-obsessed online personality in a place without any devices and see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of committing CW’s crimes, but still faces doubt over her recounting of what happened, which includes the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that typically attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears especially tailor-made for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the follow-up's focus leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still works as a story of rival investigators, with both women both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue and/or escape one another. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore posh places without paying much, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding stunning locations to visit, although they were likely less nefarious about it. Most of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that lingers even when numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of characters looking at digital devices.

It follows the same logic that made the Bond franchise look so consistently opulent for decades: Yes, big action and visual effects can display a big budget, however just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much aerial pool video. The characters have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the emptiness of online fame. While it can be gratifying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced while on ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at bits of modern online life without deeply exploring them further. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title for the film might give devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, for now.