🔗 Share this article

“This whole affair reeks like a cheap TV movie,” remarks an opportunistic podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an bizarre tale he once said he trusted. Yet his description of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, two films on demand chronicling a young woman who worms her way into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains how much better it is than plenty of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It is precisely the thriller capable of giving its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, entices them to their doom, and covers up those deaths (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This lends 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to her partner that someone should try stranding a phone-addicted influencer in a place with no technology to see if they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now exonerated for committing CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt over her version of what happened, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, which seems particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) While the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the original felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a tale of rival amateur detectives, with both women both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue or evade one another. Then again, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore posh places at little cost, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful in locating stunning locations to visit, though they were likely more legitimate in their methods. Most of the film seems to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight that remains even as numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, big action and special effects can display large spending, however just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals must believably occupy these luxurious, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed against the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it can be gratifying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to wish she evades capture, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he tapped into the loneliness Madison felt while on ostensibly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film might give fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it’s more like a polished Hitchcock thriller than an wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what keeps it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, for now.