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“This whole affair smells like a bad TV movie,” states an opportunistic commentator midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an outlandish story he previously claimed he believed. But his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, a pair of films on demand about a young woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry but network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be compared to much of its competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

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

This provides the 2025 Influencers some early mystery, as returning writer-director the director picks up with the character CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and ire.

CW remarks to her partner that a person should try stranding a device-obsessed online personality somewhere with no technology and see whether they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the special treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces doubt regarding her recounting of what happened, including the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a story of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to chase or evade one another. Then again, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales at little cost, a skill that CW echoes with her more overt scheming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding beautiful places to visit, though they were likely less nefarious about it. Most of the film appears to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that remains even as many scenes consist of a handful of actors of people looking at digital devices.

It follows the same logic that made the Bond franchise look so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, big action and visual effects can display large spending, however just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing online content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these lush, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — 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 emptiness of online fame. While it is gratifying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to hope she evades capture, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the loneliness Madison experienced while on supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will reveal that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he resists turning into a caricature the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The flip side of this balanced approach is that it may occasionally seem that he’s nodding at bits of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The pluralized title for the film might give devotees of the original hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than a frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places may also be what keeps it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.