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“Everything about this stinks of a bad made-for-TV,” states a cynical commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, his tone is manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee with an outlandish story he once said he trusted. Yet his description of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of films on demand about a young woman who worms her way into the lives of social media stars before killing them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be than plenty of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) by taking control of their socials. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, as returning filmmaker the director resumes with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to Diane that a person should try leaving a device-obsessed influencer somewhere with no technology and see if they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the preferential treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of committing CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion over her version of the events, which includes the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a right-wing-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that typically attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in the part, a role that appears particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s focus tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between the two women — it still functions as a story of rival amateur detectives, with both women both use fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase or evade one another. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for gaining access to posh places at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding beautiful places to film, though they were likely less nefarious about it. The vast majority of the movie appears to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight that remains even as numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of characters looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, explosive action and special effects can display a big budget, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off as much aerial pool video. These individuals must believably occupy these lush, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — including the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a screed against the emptiness of online fame. Though it can be satisfying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to wish she evades capture, Harder is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt during ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his true devotion to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title for the film might give fans of the first movie expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with a suitably wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself is still here, for now.