🔗 Share this article

“The entire situation stinks like a bad TV movie,” states a cynical podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee with an outlandish story he previously claimed he believed. But his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of films on demand chronicling a young woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains how much better it proves to be than plenty of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of thriller that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, entices them to their doom, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with the character CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to Diane that someone ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted influencer in a place with no technology to see if they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, now cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion over her recounting of the events, including the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically capture CW's interest.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears especially custom-fit for her talents. (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 works as a tale of rival investigators, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, 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 gaining access to luxurious locales at little cost, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding stunning locations to film, though they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the movie appears to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight that remains even when numerous sequences consist of a relatively small cast of people staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise appear so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, explosive action and visual effects can display a big budget, however simply offering a kind of visual tour to viewers also feels deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle of creating jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature as much aerial pool footage. The characters have to convincingly occupy these lush, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed against the vacuousness of online fame. While it is satisfying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment allows us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt while on supposedly dream getaways. Here, 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 turning into a caricature the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title for the film might give devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the film ultimately delivers that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. But before that, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places might also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, for now.