🔗 Share this article

“This whole affair smells of a bad made-for-TV,” remarks an opportunistic commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an outlandish story he once claimed he believed. Yet his description of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, two films on demand chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of social media stars and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid but network-approved Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers remains just how superior it is compared to much of its competition, irrespective of screen size. It is precisely the thriller that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, entices them to their doom, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early mystery, when returning writer-director the director picks up with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to Diane that a person should try stranding a phone-addicted influencer somewhere with no technology and see if they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion regarding her version of what happened, which includes the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that normally capture CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in her role, which seems especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking wardrobe.) Although the follow-up's focus leans heavily into CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of rival investigators, with both women employ fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue and/or escape one another. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for gaining access to posh places without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally ingenious about finding stunning locations to visit, although they were likely more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the film seems to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even as many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of people staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise look so consistently opulent for decades: Yes, big action and visual effects can display large spending, but just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also feels deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy entry to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers which don't feature as much aerial pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, remote places to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently each person — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant against the vacuousness of the influencer industry. Though it is satisfying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is relatively sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without investigating them further. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title for the film might give fans of the first movie hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, 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 wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places may also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. Our society might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, for now.