Influencer Movie Recap: Everything To Know Before Shudder 2025 Film

If you can overlook some shoddy narrative choices and suspend the scope of your disbelief long enough to let the story play out its cards, then Kurtis David Harder’s thriller, “Influencer,” will surprise you with its sharp, sly commentary on the ongoing trend of lifestyle selling culture, beauty bias, and moral policing. Don’t be fooled by the tacky B-movie title, which doesn’t do justice to the deft narrative treatment the movie has to offer. Now that “Influencers,” a direct sequel to the movie, is about to get released, let’s take a look at the key events and characters from the first entry to catch up with the story so far.

Spoilers Ahead

The very first scene of “Influencer” hints at an ominous future, as it shows a seemingly unconscious woman lying on an island shore, all alone. The beginning of “Influencer” focuses on Madison, a California-based popular social media influencer who has found fame after following her boyfriend, Ryan’s, suggestion of chronicling her day-to-day life on social media. Brand endorsements and lifestyle marketing have made Madison rich enough to travel worldwide on her own and live lavishly in expensive resorts and hotels. At present, Madison is on vacation in Thailand, busy enjoying the exotic culture and stepping out of her ‘comfort zone,’ but is gripped by a sense of sadness as Ryan couldn’t join her on the trip due to work pressure on his end. 

Madison comes across CW, a street-smart girl with a birthmark on her face, as she helps her avoid a creepy middle-aged guy who was trying to flirt with her in the hotel lounge. Madison trusts CW, given she helped her out of the tricky situation and opens up about her experiences as an influencer. Even before they get to know each other, CW takes Madison on a tour across Thailand, offering an experience she couldn’t have had solely by depending on app recommendations. CW remains unwilling to let Madison take her picture, which she assumes to be because of her facial appearance due to a birthmark. Things take a turn for the worse as, one night, Madison finds her place to have been robbed and her passport stolen. Following CW’s suggestion, she decides to extend her stay while waiting to get a new one, and informs Ryan about her present predicament. Ryan appears unbothered about the situation, as he prioritizes Madison’s social media activity over her safety, much to her dismay. Her growing estrangement from Ryan pushes Madison further towards CW, who brings her to her own place on one occasion—allowing her to stay so she doesn’t have to bother extending her trip. One day, CW takes a speedboat and decides to take Madison to visit a remote, desolate island where she used to come with her fisherman father at a young age. Enjoying herself at the bonfire, Madison jokingly speculates about the possibility of whether CW has brought her to the godforsaken, off-grid island to kill her. CW goes on to explain in detail that leaving someone like Madison, whom she generalizes as a typical entitled person with no survival skills of her own, stranded on the island will do the job without CW having to get her hands dirty. Madison, believing CW is just going along with her teasing questions, shares her belief that the disappearance of a social media personality like her will not go unnoticed, even though CW doesn’t share a similar sentiment. The next morning, CW does exactly what she said she would, leaves a sleeping Madison stranded on the island, and returns to the mainland on her own after taking all her belongings. To keep Madison’s disappearance a secret, CW accesses her accounts and uses her images and videos as a model to create believable deepfakes to convince Madison’s followers that she is still active as usual. Living in Madison’s luxurious mansion using her IDs and credit cards, CW literally steps into Madison’s shoes until two weeks later she finds her new target, another social media influencer, Jessica, who is travelling Thailand solo. 

CW’s vile scheme of taking advantage of female influencers isn’t just motivated by her greed; there is a strong sense of hatred she feels towards the people who have become popular thanks to having a likable appearance. Needless to say, her insecurities about her own skin, the birthmark on her face, and possibly certain sordid experiences in the past are somewhat responsible for her growing such a perspective. CW meets Jessica and gradually entraps her in the same scheme—earning her trust, stealing her passport, and offering her a place to stay in Madison’s mansion, which she claims to be her own. Things take a surprising turn when CW finds out Ryan is already present in the mansion, as he has come to Thailand to surprise Madison. CW lies about being Madison’s friend, and says she was invited to stay with her. 

Using an AI voice modulator, CW pretends to be Madison and calls Ryan to break things off with him. Ryan is shocked at Madison’s sudden change in behavior, but remains unwilling to leave until she meets him in person. CW fears her ruse will get exposed, as in the next few days, Jessica and Ryan share their situation with each other, and eventually Jessica figures out everything on her own. As she is trying to leave, CW tries to stop her, and Jessica confronts her about her using Madison’s story as her own to gain trust and conning influencers for her own selfish desires. Following a heated altercation, CW beats up Jessica, kills her by stabbing her with the heel of a stiletto, and dumps her body inside her trolley bag. CW nearly decides to kill Ryan as well, but stops upon learning that he has posted a picture of Jessica on his social media account where CW is partially visible. Before taking down Ryan, CW needs to scrub that post, and this time she takes a different strategy. She tries to make Ryan believe that Jessica has moved on by posting fake pictures of her in a relationship with elderly man and tries to befriend Ryan to gain his trust. 

Ryan confides in CW that he helped Madison see her potential as an influencer in the first place and suggests that he can do the same for her as well. The two eventually connect, and taking a drunk Ryan back to the mansion, CW pretends to have sex with him while she unlocks his phone and deletes the post. The next day, Ryan decides to leave after losing all hope for reconciliation with Madison, and CW breathes a sigh of relief, considering her secrets are safe. However, as Ryan starts to recollect memories he shared with Madison, he begins to look at things more clearly and realizes something feels off. Ryan goes to visit the resort Madison stayed at and learns from the flirty old man that she was accompanied by CW when she left after having her place robbed. The old man also points out a major discrepancy in the fake posts. Ryan takes a closer look at the fake posts CW shared on Madison’s profile and realizes CW was the one who made those posts. 

Later on, Ryan ambushes CW in Madison’s mansion and holds her hostage while interrogating her about Madison’s fate. CW tries to talk her way out of the mess, but an enraged Ryan makes it clear that he will not hesitate to take extreme measures if she doesn’t revealwhat really happened to Madison. CW guides Ryan to dockside to the speedboat and, catching him off guard, throws him into the water. CW murders Ryan by stabbing him to death, and the next day, spreads lies about Ryan being an abuser using Madison’s profile. 

In order to dispose of Ryan and Jessica’s corpses, CW returns to the island, only to discover that Madison is still alive, as she finds the date marks made in a wooden log. Contrary to her beliefs, Madison had what it took to survive, and now CW is in panic mode—realizing that karma will strike back sooner or later. Arming herself with a shovel, CW tries to find Madison but ends up getting knocked out as Madison finds her first. Madison learns about Ryan’s tragic fate upon finding the speedboat. However, despite having all the justification to kill CW for what she did to her, Madison decides to spare her life, and leaves with the speedboat, subjecting her to the same fate that she was forced to experience. Getting her senses back, CW looks at Madison zooming past the island in the speedboat and can’t help but smirk at the poetic justice she has just been served with. Forever transformed by the experiences she has had, Madison appears to be a completely different woman. Unbroken, wiser, and stronger than ever, she has learned a costly lesson about life’s worth and equations of trust. Madison’s life will never be the same, and it remains to be seen whether she regrets her decision of letting CW live in the future. It doesn’t seem like CW will perish on the island, as she is quite capable of taking care of herself. On the first chance she gets to return to the mainland, she will try to take revenge against Madison, which is a story for another day.