Director: Skye Borgman
Stars: Jodi Hildebrandt, Jessica Bate, Eric Clarke
Synopsis: Unravel the case of Utah therapist Jodi Hildebrandt, whose child abuse arrest with parenting Youtuber Ruby Franke exposed a twisted tale of manipulation.
Jodi Hildebrandt was once a licensed therapist, a self-styled relationship coach, and a commanding voice within a particular corner of online self-help culture. Through counselling sessions, religiously inflected rhetoric, and, later, social media influence, she positioned herself as a moral authority on family, discipline, and “truth.” Her downfall, marked by allegations of severe child abuse and coercive control, transformed her from trusted guide to cautionary figure. Netflix’s Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story sets out to examine how that transformation occurred, and how and why it went unchecked for so long.
The documentary begins with the famous doorbell footage that went viral of Hildebrandt’s business partner Ruby Franke’s son escaping and asking a neighbor for help. The video is distressing and broke many hearts across the world online. Dubbed over the video is Jodi’s voice preaching about loving children. A chilling and compelling start and quick reminder of who we are dealing with. The torture she inflicted on these children, out of “love,” is mentioned throughout the documentary as they show footage of her speaking and read from her journal.
But rather than framing Hildebrandt as an instant evil monster, the film traces the gradual construction of her authority. A clear process rooted in credentialism, certainty, and a rhetoric that conflated obedience with healing. From the outset, Evil Influencer is careful to situate her rise within broader systems: therapeutic institutions that failed to intervene, faith communities that amplified her voice, and digital platforms that rewarded absolutism with reach. It deeply looks into the Mormon religion, how this community influences people and how social media’s intrigue with that religion and culture helped build their following.
The one hour, forty minute documentary has a multitude of interviews with former clients, family members, journalists, police officers, detectives and experts. The measured pacing of these interviews is one of the documentary’s strengths. The horror of Hildebrandt’s alleged actions bleeds through the same language echoed across the different interviewees. The same techniques of shame, isolation, and moral coercion applied again and again. The effect is chilling precisely because it is systematic. The interviews are candid, and not afraid to share opinions, experiences and help shape our understanding of how Hildebrandt was the way she was.
There’s archive footage, bodycam footage, and photographs of the Franke children, to help build the story of Hildebrandt and her destructive nature. Examples of online content are cleverly used to illustrate how certainty performs well in digital spaces, especially when wrapped in moral urgency. Again reinforcing how this awful woman came to be so popular and find vindication in her actions.
One of the film’s sharpest insights lies in its exploration of language. Hildebrandt’s vocabulary is filled with terms like “truth,” “distortion,” and “accountability”, and this is analysed as an ideology and as a tool. Evil Influencer shows how therapeutic language can be weaponised, particularly when paired with spiritual authority and delivered by someone trained to command emotional vulnerability.
Where Evil Influencer occasionally falters is in its structural balance. The later sections focus on legal consequences and public reckoning and feel comparatively compressed after the painstaking build-up of Hildebrandt’s rise. While this may reflect the ongoing nature of the case, it leaves the documentary slightly weighted toward origin rather than aftermath. A deeper interrogation of institutional accountability would have strengthened the documentary.
The documentary’s most unsettling achievement is how recognizable its warning feels. Hildebrandt is presented as an extreme manifestation of a familiar cultural pattern; the elevation of self-appointed experts who promise clarity in exchange for compliance. In an era saturated with wellness influencers and life coaches, the film’s implications stretch far beyond a single case.Ultimately, Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story is less about one woman than about the fragility of safeguards around care, authority, and belief. It is a sober, unsettling documentary that asks viewers to question not only who they listen to, but why. Netflix, once again, has delivered a compelling true-crime documentary that is, ironically, influentially powerful. If you want more from this story, you should watch ‘Devil in the Family: the Fall of Ruby Franke’ available on Disney+. Whilst there is much similar content, it does explore the side of Ruby Franke and her family dynamic.
