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“Everything about this reeks like a bad TV movie,” observes a cynical podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an outlandish story he once claimed he believed. Yet his description of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, two films on demand chronicling a woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but network-approved Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers is just how superior it is than plenty of its competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning writer-director the director resumes with the character CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that a person ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted influencer somewhere without any devices and see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion regarding her recounting of the events, which includes the murder of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears especially custom-fit for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking wardrobe.) While the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a story of rival investigators, with both women both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue or evade each other. Of course, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore posh places without paying much, a skill which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding stunning locations to film, 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 lingers even as numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of people staring at digital devices.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, explosive action and visual effects can show off large spending, however simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems deeply filmic. It’s also especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing online content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature this much aerial pool video. The characters must believably occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it is gratifying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced while on supposedly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he resists turning into a caricature the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem as if he is acknowledging elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the story, an intriguing development that lacks the psychosexual kick it deserves. The pluralized title for the film might give devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with a suitably wild final act. But before that, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations might also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, for now.