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“This whole affair stinks of a cheap made-for-TV,” observes an opportunistic podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee whose outlandish story he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, two films on demand about a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of online influencers before killing them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid but cable-ready weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect about Influencers remains how much better it is than plenty of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It is precisely the thriller capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, lures 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 near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers a degree of mystery, as returning filmmaker the director resumes with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and ire.

CW remarks to her partner that someone should try leaving a phone-addicted influencer somewhere with no technology and see whether they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now cleared of committing CW’s crimes, but still faces doubt over her version of the events, including the murder of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in the part, which seems particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching outfits.) While the sequel’s focus tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a story of dueling investigators, with both women employ fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase or evade one another. Of course, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore posh places at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally ingenious in locating beautiful places to visit, although they were presumably more legitimate about it. Most of the film seems to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that remains even when numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of people looking at digital devices.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent for decades: Yes, big action and visual effects can show off a big budget, however simply offering a kind of visual tour to viewers also feels inherently cinematic. It’s also especially fitting for a story so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle of creating envy-inducing online content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to impossibly chic modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters have to convincingly occupy these lush, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — even the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant targeting the emptiness of online fame. Though it is satisfying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification lets us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt during supposedly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film might give devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the film does eventually provide that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.