🔗 Share this article

“Everything about this reeks of a cheap made-for-TV,” observes a cynical podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of the events on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but network-approved Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers remains how much better it is than plenty of the competition, regardless of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film that should give other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The movie 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 lends the 2025 Influencers some early mystery, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to her partner that a person should try stranding a device-obsessed online personality somewhere without any devices to see if they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her version of what happened, including the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the original felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a story of rival investigators, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase or evade each other. Then again, perhaps the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for getting to explore posh places without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful in locating beautiful places to film, though they were likely more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the movie appears to be shot on location, providing it a real-world weight that lingers even as numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of people looking at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, big action and special effects can display large spending, however simply offering a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. It’s also especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing online content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards that don’t show off as much aerial pool video. The characters must believably inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how often everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the vacuousness of online fame. While it is gratifying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced while on supposedly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob at work will reveal that he’s peddling snake-oil 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’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim by it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it may occasionally seem as if he is acknowledging elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them further. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than a wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places might also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, for now.