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“This whole affair stinks like a bad made-for-TV,” observes an opportunistic podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an outlandish story he previously said he trusted. Yet his assessment of the events in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, two streaming movies chronicling a woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but network-approved Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be compared to much of its competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their online accounts. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers a degree of ambiguity, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that a person should try stranding a phone-addicted influencer somewhere with no technology and see if they can make it. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion regarding her version of the events, including the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in the part, a role that appears particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still works as a story of rival amateur detectives, with both women employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape one another. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore posh places at little cost, an ability that CW echoes with her more overt scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating beautiful places to film, although they were likely more legitimate in their methods. Most of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that lingers even when numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of characters 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 visual effects can show off large spending, however just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature as much aerial pool video. The characters must believably occupy these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant targeting the emptiness of online fame. While it can be gratifying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob in action will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim by it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is especially true of the way he brings AI into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film might give devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. But before that, it’s more like a polished Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what prevents it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself remains present, at least for now.