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“This whole affair reeks of a cheap TV movie,” states an opportunistic commentator midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an outlandish story he previously said he trusted. But his description of what’s happening in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, two films on demand about a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of social media stars before killing them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains how much better it proves to be than plenty of its competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and covers up those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking their one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that a person should try leaving a device-obsessed online personality somewhere with no technology to see if they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the special treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her version of the events, which includes the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in the part, which seems especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking wardrobe.) While the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a tale of rival investigators, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase or evade each other. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to posh places without paying much, an ability that CW echoes with her more overt scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally ingenious about finding stunning locations to film, though they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. Most of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even as many scenes involve a handful of actors of characters staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can display large spending, however simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a story so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to impossibly chic modern bungalows; there are movies concerning beach rescuers which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals must believably inhabit these lush, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — even the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a rant against the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it is satisfying to see CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced during supposedly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not a victim by it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without investigating them. This is especially true regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychological edge it should have. The retitled sequel for the film might give devotees of the original hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.