🔗 Share this article

“Everything about this stinks of a cheap made-for-TV,” remarks an opportunistic commentator midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an outlandish story he previously claimed he believed. But his assessment of the events in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of films on demand about a woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers is just how superior it is than plenty of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the suspense film that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and ire.

CW remarks to her partner that someone ought to attempt stranding a device-obsessed influencer somewhere without any devices and see if they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion regarding her recounting of what happened, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to juice his career as half of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of dueling investigators, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade one another. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for gaining access to posh places without paying much, an ability that CW echoes with her more overt scheming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers appear equally ingenious about finding stunning locations to visit, though they were presumably less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the film appears to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that lingers even when many scenes involve a relatively small cast of characters staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent for decades: Yes, big action and special effects can display a big budget, but just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems deeply filmic. It’s also especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing online content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off this much aerial pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these lush, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — even the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed against the vacuousness of online fame. Though it is gratifying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment allows us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is relatively sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt while on supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob in action will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging elements of modern online life without investigating them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he brings AI into the story, an intriguing development that lacks the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an wild-eyed, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself remains present, at least for now.