🔗 Share this article

“Everything about this reeks of a bad made-for-TV,” remarks a cynical podcaster during the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of films on demand chronicling a young woman who worms her way into the lives of social media stars before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry but network-approved Movie of the Week. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains just how superior it is than plenty of its competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

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

CW comments to her partner that someone should try stranding a phone-addicted online personality somewhere with no technology to see if they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt regarding her recounting of what happened, which includes the killing of her 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), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically attract CW's interest.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a story of rival amateur detectives, with both women employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape each other. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore posh places at little cost, a skill which CW mirrors with her more overt scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding beautiful places to visit, although they were likely less nefarious about it. The vast majority of the movie seems to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight that lingers even when numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of characters looking at digital devices.

It follows the same logic which allowed the James Bond movies appear so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, big action and special effects can show off large spending, but simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the vacuousness of the influencer industry. Though it can be satisfying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced during supposedly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is especially true of the way he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development that lacks the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title of Influencers could offer devotees of the original hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. But before that, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, at least for now.