🔗 Share this article

“This whole affair reeks of a cheap TV movie,” observes an opportunistic podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an outlandish story he once claimed he believed. But his description of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. Superficially, two streaming movies about a young woman who worms her way into the lives of social media stars and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers is how much better it is than plenty of its competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning writer-director the director picks up with the character CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and ire.

CW comments to her partner that a person ought to attempt leaving a device-obsessed online personality somewhere without any devices to see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the preferential treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces doubt over her recounting of the events, which includes the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the curated images that typically attract CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in her role, which seems especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a tale of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase or evade each other. Then again, perhaps the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful in locating beautiful places to film, though they were presumably less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the film seems to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight that lingers even as many scenes involve a relatively small cast of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, big action and special effects can show off large spending, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to impossibly chic modern bungalows; there are movies concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently each person — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it is satisfying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is relatively sympathetic to the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt during supposedly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it may occasionally seem that he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title for the film could offer fans of the first movie hope for an Aliens-style escalation, and the film does eventually provide that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. Our society may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself is still here, for now.