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“Everything about this reeks like a cheap made-for-TV,” observes an opportunistic commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. But his description of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, two films on demand about a woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry but cable-ready weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is just how superior it is than plenty of its competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by taking control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with the character CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to her partner that someone ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted influencer somewhere without any devices to see if they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the special treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW’s crimes, but still faces doubt regarding her recounting of the events, including the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a right-wing-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images that typically capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in the part, a role that appears especially tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a story of rival investigators, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape each other. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales at little cost, an ability that CW echoes with her more overt scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating stunning locations to visit, although they were presumably less nefarious about it. Most of the film appears to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight that remains even as numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of people looking at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise appear so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, big action and visual effects can show off large spending, but just providing a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off this much aerial pool video. These individuals must believably inhabit these luxurious, remote places to emphasize the uneasy irony of how often each person — even the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a screed against the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it can be satisfying to see CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob in action will reveal that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without investigating them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film might give devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with a suitably wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than a frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places might also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.