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“The entire situation reeks of 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 whose outlandish story he previously claimed he believed. Yet his assessment of what’s happening in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of films on demand about a young woman who worms her way into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers is just how superior it proves to be compared to much of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving other movies a serious bout 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 covers up those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers a degree of ambiguity, as returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to Diane that a person ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted online personality somewhere without any devices and see whether they can make it. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion regarding her version of the events, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images that normally capture CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, which seems particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) Although the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape each other. Of course, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess 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 resourceful in locating stunning locations to film, although they were presumably more legitimate about it. Most of the film seems to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that remains even as many scenes consist of a handful of actors of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, big action and special effects can display a big budget, but simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards that don’t show off 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 — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant against the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it is satisfying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is relatively understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt during ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without investigating them further. This is especially true regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it’s more like a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.