🔗 Share this article

“Everything about this stinks of a bad TV movie,” remarks an opportunistic podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee with an outlandish story he previously claimed he believed. But his assessment of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of streaming movies about a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of online influencers before killing them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be than plenty of its competition, regardless of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film that should give other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their doom, and covers up those murders (for a time) by taking control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early mystery, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to Diane that a person ought to attempt stranding a device-obsessed online personality in a place with no technology and see if they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the preferential treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt regarding her version of what happened, which includes the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking wardrobe.) While the follow-up's focus leans heavily into CW — the first film felt more equally divided between the two women — it still functions as a story of rival investigators, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to chase or evade one another. Of course, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to posh places at little cost, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally ingenious in locating beautiful places to film, although they were likely less nefarious about it. Most of the film appears to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that lingers even when many scenes involve a handful of actors of people looking at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle that made the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, explosive action and visual effects can show off large spending, however just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing digital content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much aerial pool video. These individuals must believably inhabit these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed against the emptiness of online fame. While it can be gratifying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced while on ostensibly dream getaways. Here, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging elements 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 retitled sequel for the film might give fans of the first movie hope for an Aliens-style escalation, and the movie does eventually provide exactly that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it’s more like a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, for now.