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“The entire situation reeks like a bad TV movie,” remarks an opportunistic commentator midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. But his assessment of the events in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of films on demand chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars before killing them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid but network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers is just how superior it proves to be compared to much of its competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, as returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking the couple’s first 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 online personality in a place without any devices and see if they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her version of the events, including the murder of Madison’s 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 chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that normally capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) Although the follow-up's focus leans heavily into CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a story of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue or evade one another. Then again, perhaps the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore posh places without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding stunning locations to film, although they were likely less nefarious about it. Most of the film appears to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that lingers even when numerous sequences consist of a relatively small cast of people staring at digital devices.

It follows the same logic which allowed the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, explosive action and special effects can show off large spending, however simply offering a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a story so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing digital content.

Every character in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much aerial pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, remote places to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of 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 vacuousness of online fame. While it can be satisfying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to hope she evades capture, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the loneliness Madison experienced while on supposedly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title for the film could offer fans of the first movie hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than an wild-eyed, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places might also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, at least for now.