🔗 Share this article

“The entire situation stinks like a cheap TV movie,” observes a cynical commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee whose outlandish story he once claimed he believed. Yet his description of the events in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, two streaming movies about a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains how much better it is than plenty of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning filmmaker the director picks up with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and ire.

CW comments to Diane that someone should try leaving a phone-addicted online personality somewhere with no technology and see if they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the special treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt regarding her version of what happened, which includes the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images that typically capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still works as a story of rival investigators, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape one another. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales at little cost, a skill which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding stunning locations to visit, although they were likely less nefarious about it. Most of the film seems to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that lingers even as numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of people staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the James Bond movies appear so persistently lavish over the years: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can display large spending, but 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 simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to impossibly chic modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters must believably occupy these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently each person — even the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a screed against the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it can be gratifying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to hope she evades capture, Harder is relatively understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt during ostensibly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film might give fans of the first movie expectations of an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. Our society might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.