🔗 Share this article

“This whole affair stinks like a bad made-for-TV,” observes an opportunistic commentator midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, two films on demand about a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of social media stars and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid yet cable-ready weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains just how superior it is compared to much of the competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers some early mystery, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that a person should try leaving a device-obsessed online personality somewhere with no technology to see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of committing CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion regarding her version of the events, which includes the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically capture CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) While the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a story of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase and/or escape each other. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Influencers have a talent for gaining access to posh places at little cost, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding stunning locations to visit, though they were likely less nefarious about it. The vast majority of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that lingers even as many scenes involve a handful of actors of people looking at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise look so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, explosive action and special effects can show off a big budget, but simply offering a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and desperate hustle of creating envy-inducing online content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters must believably inhabit these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently each person — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nevertheless devotes much time under the light of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it is gratifying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to hope she evades capture, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced during supposedly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without investigating 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 retitled sequel of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the film does eventually provide that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an 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 always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.