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“The entire situation smells like a bad TV movie,” remarks an opportunistic podcaster during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee whose outlandish story he previously claimed he believed. But his description of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of films on demand chronicling a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid but cable-ready weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect about Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be than plenty of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This lends 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder resumes with the character CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to her partner that someone should try leaving a phone-addicted influencer somewhere with no technology and see if they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her version of what happened, including the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in her role, which seems especially custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s focus tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a tale of rival investigators, with both women employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade each other. Of course, perhaps the vast resources isn’t necessary. Influencers have a talent for gaining access to 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 appear equally resourceful in locating beautiful places to visit, although they were presumably less nefarious about it. Most of the film appears to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even as many scenes involve a handful of actors of characters looking at digital devices.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, big action and special effects can display large spending, however just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle of creating envy-inducing digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off this much aerial pool footage. The characters have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it can be gratifying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to wish she evades capture, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt while on supposedly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work 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 by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it may occasionally seem as if he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film could offer fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but reality itself remains present, for now.