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“This whole affair smells like a bad made-for-TV,” remarks a cynical commentator midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee whose outlandish story he once said he trusted. But his description of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies about a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers before killing them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but network-approved Movie of the Week. The wild thing regarding Influencers is just how superior it proves to be than plenty of its competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses 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 film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking their one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that someone ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted influencer somewhere with no technology and see if they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt regarding her version of what happened, including the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the curated images that normally capture CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) While the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of rival amateur detectives, with both women both use fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue and/or escape one another. Of course, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Influencers have a talent for gaining access to posh places without paying much, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating stunning locations to visit, although they were likely less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the film appears to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that remains even when many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish over the years: Indeed, big action and visual effects can show off large spending, however just providing a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a narrative so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards that don’t show off this much aerial pool footage. These individuals must believably occupy these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it can be gratifying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the loneliness Madison experienced during ostensibly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not someone exploited by it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers 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 resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what keeps it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. The world might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.