🔗 Share this article

“This whole affair reeks like a bad made-for-TV,” remarks a cynical commentator midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. But his description of the events on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, two streaming movies about a young woman who worms her way into the lives of social media stars before killing them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers is how much better it proves to be than plenty of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller that should give other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, entices them to their doom, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The movie 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 the 2025 Influencers a degree of mystery, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to her partner that a person ought to attempt stranding a device-obsessed online personality somewhere without any devices to see whether they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, but still faces doubt regarding her version of the events, including the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a right-wing-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images that normally attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in the part, which seems particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) Although the follow-up's focus leans heavily into CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a tale of rival investigators, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape each other. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore posh places at little cost, a skill which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating beautiful places to visit, although they were likely less nefarious about it. The vast majority of the movie seems to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight that remains even as many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the Bond franchise look so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, 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 coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters must believably inhabit these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently each person — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time under the light of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, the director has not crafted a rant against the emptiness of online fame. Though it is gratifying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment allows us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is relatively sympathetic to the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced while on ostensibly dream getaways. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he resists turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not a victim 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 regarding how he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title of Influencers might give devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style escalation, and the film does eventually provide that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what keeps it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, for now.