🔗 Share this article

“Everything about this stinks like a cheap made-for-TV,” remarks a cynical podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose bizarre tale he once 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 insinuates herself into the lives of social media stars before killing them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers is how much better it is compared to much of its competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller capable of giving its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their online accounts. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned 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 writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to her partner that someone should try leaving a device-obsessed influencer in a place without any devices and see if they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story 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’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion over her recounting of what happened, which includes the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that normally attract CW's interest.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems especially tailor-made for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) While the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original 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 unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape each other. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating stunning locations to visit, although they were likely less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the film seems to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that remains even when numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of people looking 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 display large spending, but just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle of creating envy-inducing digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to impossibly chic modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these lush, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it can be gratifying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification lets us to hope she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced while on supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The other side of this balanced approach is that it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at bits of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is especially true of the way he brings AI into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film could offer devotees of the original hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide that, with a suitably wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a frenzied, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what keeps it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, for now.