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“Everything about this reeks like a bad TV movie,” observes an opportunistic podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. But his assessment of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, two films on demand about a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers before killing them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet cable-ready weekly TV movie. 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 is precisely the suspense film capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their doom, and covers up those murders (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, as returning writer-director the director resumes with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to Diane that someone ought to attempt stranding a device-obsessed influencer in a place without any devices and see whether they can make it. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt over her version of the events, which includes the murder 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), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that normally capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, which seems particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) While the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a story of dueling investigators, with both women employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape one another. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales at little cost, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding stunning locations to visit, although they were presumably less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the film seems to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even when numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise look so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, big action and visual effects can display a big budget, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

Every character in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals must believably occupy these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it is gratifying to see CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to wish she evades capture, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt while on ostensibly dream getaways. Here, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear 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’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them further. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title of Influencers might give devotees of the original hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. But before that, it’s more like a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than a wild-eyed, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself is still here, for now.