🔗 Share this article

“Everything about this smells like a cheap made-for-TV,” states a cynical podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. But his assessment of the events in the movie isn't inaccurate. Superficially, two streaming movies chronicling a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers is just how superior it proves to be compared to much of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, entices them to their doom, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers a degree of ambiguity, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder resumes with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that a person ought to attempt leaving a device-obsessed influencer somewhere with no technology and see if they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the special treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion regarding her recounting of the events, including the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the curated images that normally attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a story of dueling investigators, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape each other. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore posh places without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding stunning locations to film, though they were likely less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that remains even as many scenes involve a handful of actors of characters staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise appear so persistently lavish over the years: Indeed, big action and visual effects can show off a big budget, but simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels deeply filmic. It’s also especially fitting for a story so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters must believably occupy these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how often each person — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a rant targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it can be satisfying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to hope she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced while on ostensibly dream getaways. Here, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob in action will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without investigating them. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title for the film could offer devotees of the original hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places might also be what keeps it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, at least for now.