🔗 Share this article

“Everything about this smells like a bad made-for-TV,” states a cynical podcaster during the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. Yet his assessment of the events on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of films on demand about a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers before killing them feels like a modern-day version of a lurid but network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers is how much better it proves to be than plenty of its competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early mystery, as returning filmmaker the director resumes with the character CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and ire.

CW comments to Diane that someone ought to attempt leaving a device-obsessed online personality somewhere with no technology and see whether they can survive. Is this a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the special treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of committing CW’s crimes, but still faces doubt regarding her recounting of what happened, which includes the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally capture CW's interest.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in the part, a role that appears especially tailor-made for her talents. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) Although the follow-up's focus leans heavily into CW — the first film felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a story of dueling investigators, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade each other. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Influencers have a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, a skill which CW mirrors with her more overt scheming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful in locating stunning locations to visit, though they were presumably less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the film seems to be shot on location, providing it a real-world weight that remains even when numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of people staring at digital devices.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, big action and visual effects can show off a big budget, however simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much aerial pool footage. The characters have to convincingly occupy these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. Though it is satisfying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to wish she evades capture, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the loneliness Madison experienced while on ostensibly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title for the film might give devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what keeps it from seeming like utter horror. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, for now.