🔗 Share this article

“The entire situation smells of a bad TV movie,” observes a cynical podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. But his assessment of the events in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, two streaming movies about a woman who worms her way into the worlds of online influencers before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet cable-ready weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect about Influencers is just how superior it proves to be than plenty of its competition, regardless of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their online accounts. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned 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 mystery, as returning filmmaker the director picks up with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that a person should try stranding a device-obsessed influencer somewhere with no technology and see if they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of committing CW's offenses, but still faces doubt regarding her version of what happened, including the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically attract CW's interest.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in the part, a role that appears particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She also designed CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the first film seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of rival investigators, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape one another. Then again, perhaps the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for gaining access to posh places at little cost, a skill which CW mirrors with her more overt scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding beautiful places to film, although they were likely more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the film seems to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that lingers even when numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle that made the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent for decades: Yes, big action and visual effects can show off large spending, but simply offering a kind of visual tour to viewers also feels inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle of creating envy-inducing digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy entry to impossibly chic modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much aerial pool footage. The characters must believably inhabit these lush, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — including the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nevertheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a screed against the vacuousness of online fame. Though it can be gratifying to see CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach is that it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the plot, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. But before that, it’s more like a polished Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places might also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.