🔗 Share this article

“This whole affair reeks like a cheap TV movie,” observes an opportunistic podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose bizarre tale he once said he trusted. Yet his assessment of the events in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry but cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains just how superior it is than plenty of its competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (for a time) by seizing control of their online accounts. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to Diane that someone ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted online personality somewhere without any devices and see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the special treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces doubt regarding her recounting of the events, including the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to juice his career 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 normally capture CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) Although the sequel’s focus 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, Insta-stalking, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue and/or escape one another. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to posh places without paying much, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding beautiful places to visit, although they were likely less nefarious about it. The vast majority of the film appears to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even when many scenes consist of a handful of actors of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise appear so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, big action and special effects can show off a big budget, however just providing a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist 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' self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the vacuousness of online fame. While it is gratifying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to hope she evades capture, Harder is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced while on ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at bits of contemporary digital culture without investigating them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he brings AI into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel of Influencers might give fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than a frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, for now.