🔗 Share this article

“Everything about this stinks of a bad TV movie,” observes 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 films on demand about a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars before killing them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect about Influencers is how much better it proves to be than plenty of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early mystery, when returning writer-director the director resumes 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) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to Diane that a person should try stranding a device-obsessed influencer in a place with no technology and see if they can make it. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment afforded one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces doubt regarding her recounting of what happened, including the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically attract CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, which seems especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the original felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a tale of rival investigators, with both women employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade one another. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Influencers have a talent for getting to explore posh places without paying much, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally ingenious about finding beautiful places to film, though they were presumably more legitimate about it. Most of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that lingers even as many scenes involve a relatively small cast of people staring at digital devices.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise look so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, big action and special effects can display large spending, but just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much aerial pool video. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

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 various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced during supposedly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without investigating them. This is especially true of the way he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title of Influencers might give fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the movie does eventually provide exactly that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. But before that, it’s more like a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than a wild-eyed, technology-obsessed 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 self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, for now.