🔗 Share this article

“Everything about this reeks of a bad TV movie,” states a cynical commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. But his description of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, two streaming movies about a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of online influencers before killing them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers remains how much better it is compared to much of its competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) by taking control of their socials. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning writer-director the director resumes with the character CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to Diane that someone ought to attempt stranding a device-obsessed influencer somewhere with no technology and see whether they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces doubt regarding her version of the events, which includes the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying 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 curated images that normally capture CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the sequel’s focus tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still functions as a story of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade one another. Of course, perhaps the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, a skill that CW echoes with her more overt scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating beautiful places to visit, although they were likely more legitimate in their methods. Most of the film appears to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that lingers even when many scenes consist of a handful of actors of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies appear so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, big action and visual effects can show off a big budget, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. It’s also especially fitting for a narrative so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing online content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; there are movies concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much aerial pool video. The characters have to convincingly occupy these lush, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed against the vacuousness of online fame. Though it is satisfying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt during ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is especially true of the way he brings AI into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more 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 keeps it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.