🔗 Share this article

“Everything about this reeks of a bad TV movie,” observes a cynical podcaster during the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. Yet his description of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a woman who worms her way into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect about Influencers remains how much better it is than plenty of its competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It’s the kind of thriller that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (for a time) by seizing control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder resumes with the character CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to Diane that a person should try leaving a device-obsessed online personality somewhere with no technology and see if they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the preferential treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, now cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion over her recounting of the events, including the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a story of rival amateur detectives, with both women both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and an apparently limitless travel fund to chase or evade one another. Then again, perhaps the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating stunning locations to film, though they were presumably less nefarious in their methods. Most of the movie seems to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even as many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, explosive action and special effects can display large spending, but just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also feels deeply filmic. It’s also especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals must believably occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it is satisfying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is relatively understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film could offer fans of the first movie expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it’s more like a polished Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations might also be what keeps it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, for now.