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“This whole affair smells of a bad made-for-TV,” remarks a cynical podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose bizarre tale he once said he trusted. But his description of what’s happening in the movie isn’t wrong. On its face, a pair of streaming movies about a woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers before killing them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding 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 that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning filmmaker the director picks up with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that someone should try stranding a phone-addicted influencer somewhere without any devices and see whether they can survive. Is this a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, now cleared of committing CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion over her version of the events, including the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally capture CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in her role, which seems particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between the two women — it still functions as a tale of dueling amateur detectives, with both women both use fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to chase or evade one another. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for getting to explore posh places without paying much, a skill which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally ingenious in locating stunning locations to visit, although they were presumably more legitimate about it. Most of the film seems to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that remains even as many scenes involve a handful of actors of people looking at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the Bond franchise look so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, big action and special effects can display a big budget, but just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic modern bungalows; there are movies concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it can be satisfying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to hope she evades capture, Harder is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt while on ostensibly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not a victim by it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at bits of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is especially true of the way he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers might give fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but reality itself remains present, at least for now.