🔗 Share this article

“Everything about this stinks of a bad made-for-TV,” states an opportunistic commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. Yet his description of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, two streaming movies about a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of online influencers before killing them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing regarding Influencers is how much better it is compared to much of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses traveling alone social media targets, lures them to their doom, and covers up those murders (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning writer-director the director picks up with the character CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW remarks to her partner that a person ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted influencer in a place with no technology and see if they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion over her version of what happened, which includes the murder of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, which seems especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) Although the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the original felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of rival investigators, with both women both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade one another. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for getting to explore luxurious locales without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding stunning locations to film, although they were likely less nefarious in their methods. Most of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that remains even when many scenes consist of a handful of actors of people staring at digital devices.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can show off a big budget, but simply offering a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems deeply filmic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to impossibly chic modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers which don't feature as much aerial pool footage. These individuals must believably inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently each person — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a screed against the vacuousness of online fame. Though it can be gratifying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to hope she evades capture, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the loneliness Madison felt during ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. Here, 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. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them further. 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 might give fans of the first movie expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the film does eventually provide that, with an appropriately wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than a wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.