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“The entire situation reeks of a cheap TV movie,” remarks a cynical podcaster during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. Yet his description of the events in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of online influencers and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers remains how much better it proves to be than plenty of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals 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 off the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early mystery, as returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with the character CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to Diane that a person should try leaving a phone-addicted influencer somewhere without any devices and see if they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion over her recounting of what happened, including the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that typically attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, which seems particularly custom-fit to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) While the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a tale of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape one another. Of course, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding beautiful places to visit, though they were likely more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that remains even when many scenes involve a handful of actors of characters staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can display large spending, however just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems deeply filmic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a story so rooted in the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy entry to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to highlight the uneasy irony of how often everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time under the light of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a screed against the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it can be gratifying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced while on supposedly dream getaways. Here, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob in action will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it should have. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the film does eventually provide that, with a suitably wild final act. But before that, it’s more like a polished Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places may also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, for now.