🔗 Share this article

“The entire situation reeks of a bad made-for-TV,” remarks a cynical podcaster during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose bizarre tale he once said he trusted. But his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, two films on demand about a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers remains how much better it is than plenty of its competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their doom, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers a degree of ambiguity, as returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with CW happily living 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 remarks to her partner that a person ought to attempt stranding a device-obsessed online personality in a place without any devices to see if they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of committing CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion over her recounting of what happened, which includes the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to juice his career as half of a right-wing-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that typically capture CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears especially custom-fit for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching outfits.) While the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between the two women — it still functions as a tale of dueling amateur detectives, with both women both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase or evade each other. Then again, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales without paying much, an ability that CW echoes with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding stunning locations to visit, though they were presumably more legitimate about it. Most of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even as numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, big action and visual effects can show off large spending, however just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also feels deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a story so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how often each person — including the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nevertheless devotes much time in the glow of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the vacuousness of online fame. Though it can be gratifying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to hope she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced while on supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids turning into a caricature the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging elements of modern online life without investigating them. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title for the film might give devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than a frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what keeps it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, for now.