🔗 Share this article

“Everything about this reeks like a bad made-for-TV,” states a cynical commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. Yet his description of the events in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of films on demand chronicling a woman who worms her way into the lives of social media stars and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers is how much better it is compared to much of its competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The film concludes (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 against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder 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 anger.

CW remarks to Diane that someone ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted influencer in a place without any devices and see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the special treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt regarding her version of what happened, including the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a right-wing-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the curated images that typically attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears particularly custom-fit to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance 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 both use fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape each other. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating beautiful places to film, although they were likely more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that lingers even when numerous sequences consist of a relatively small cast of people looking at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, big action and special effects can show off a big budget, but simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much aerial pool video. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the vacuousness of online fame. While it is satisfying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt while on ostensibly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work 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 degree of respect through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The other side of this balanced approach is that it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them further. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film might give devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what keeps it from seeming like utter horror. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, for now.