🔗 Share this article

“The entire situation stinks of a bad TV movie,” remarks an opportunistic podcaster during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee whose outlandish story he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, two streaming movies chronicling a woman who worms her way into the lives of social media stars before killing them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains how much better it is than plenty of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses traveling alone social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early mystery, as returning writer-director the director picks up with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and ire.

CW comments to Diane that a person ought to attempt leaving a device-obsessed influencer in a place with no technology to see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, now cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt regarding her version 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 half of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images that normally attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears especially custom-fit for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) While 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 dueling amateur detectives, with both women both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue or evade each other. Then again, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to posh places without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally resourceful in locating stunning locations to visit, although they were presumably less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the film appears to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even as many scenes consist of a handful of actors of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, big action and special effects can show off a big budget, but simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

Every character visiting Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters have to convincingly occupy these lush, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently each person — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time in the glow of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed against the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it is gratifying to see CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced during ostensibly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists turning into a caricature the character further. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim by it.

The other side of this balanced approach is that it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer devotees of the original hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the film ultimately delivers that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places might also be what keeps it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, for now.