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“Everything about this stinks like a bad made-for-TV,” remarks an opportunistic podcaster during the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an outlandish story he once claimed he believed. But his description of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry yet cable-ready weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains how much better it proves to be than plenty of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (at least temporarily) by taking control of their socials. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning writer-director the director picks up with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate their one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that someone ought to attempt leaving a device-obsessed online personality in a place without any devices to see if they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the special treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt regarding her recounting of the events, which includes the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the curated images that normally attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in the part, a role that appears especially tailor-made for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a story of rival investigators, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape one another. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a talent for getting to explore posh places without paying much, a skill that CW echoes with her more overt scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating stunning locations to film, though they were presumably more legitimate about it. Most of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that remains even as numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, big action and special effects can show off a big budget, however just providing a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so rooted in the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a rant against the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it is gratifying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment allows us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced while on ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob in action will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without investigating them. This is especially true of the way he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film could offer devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it’s more like a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, for now.