“Everything about this stinks of a bad made-for-TV,” observes a cynical commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an bizarre tale he once said he trusted. Yet his assessment of what’s happening in the movie isn’t wrong. On its face, a pair of films on demand chronicling a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of online influencers before killing them feels like a modern-day version of a lurid but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers is just how superior it is than plenty of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.
2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned 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 the director resumes with the character CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and ire.
CW remarks to Diane that a person should try leaving a phone-addicted online personality somewhere with no technology to see whether they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment afforded one fame-seeker?
The story’s perspective 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 over her recounting of what happened, including the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically attract CW's interest.
The actor continues to be immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears especially custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a tale of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase or evade each other. Of course, perhaps the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for gaining access to posh places without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.
The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding stunning locations to film, though they were presumably less nefarious in their methods. Most of the movie appears to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight that lingers even when many scenes involve a relatively small cast of characters staring at computer or phone screens.
It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, explosive action and visual effects can show off a big budget, however simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels deeply filmic. It’s also especially fitting for a story so rooted in the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing digital content.
Every character in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy entry to impossibly chic modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature as much aerial pool video. The characters must believably occupy these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — even the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.
Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it is satisfying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced during supposedly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will reveal that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim by it.
The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is especially true regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development that lacks the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself is still here, for now.
Elara is a passionate writer and photographer who shares insights on creativity and mindful living through engaging storytelling.
