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“Everything about this smells like a cheap TV movie,” states a cynical commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee whose outlandish story he previously said he trusted. Yet his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, two streaming movies about a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of social media stars before killing them feels like a modern-day version of a lurid yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers is just how superior it proves to be compared to much of the competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning filmmaker the director picks up with the character CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate their one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that someone ought to attempt stranding a device-obsessed influencer somewhere with no technology to see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the preferential treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives 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 cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion over her recounting of what happened, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, which seems especially custom-fit for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) Although the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a tale of dueling investigators, with both women both use fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade each other. Of course, perhaps the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for getting to explore posh places without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating stunning locations to visit, though they were likely less nefarious about it. Most of the film appears to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that lingers even as numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of people staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise look so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, big action and special effects can display large spending, but simply offering a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems deeply filmic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to impossibly chic modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature this much aerial pool footage. The characters have to convincingly occupy these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nevertheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, the director has not crafted a rant against the emptiness of online fame. Though it can be gratifying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of this balanced approach is that it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at bits of modern online life without investigating them further. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title for the film could offer devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself is still here, at least for now.