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“This whole affair smells like a bad TV movie,” observes a cynical podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he once said he trusted. Yet his assessment of the events on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, two films on demand about a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers is how much better it is compared to much of the competition, regardless of screen size. It is precisely the thriller that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers a degree of 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 comments to her partner that a person ought to attempt leaving a device-obsessed influencer somewhere with no technology and see if they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the special treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion regarding her recounting of what happened, which includes the murder of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to juice his career as part of a right-wing-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images that typically attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) While the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the original felt more equally divided between the two women — it still functions as a tale of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape each other. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to posh places at little cost, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating beautiful places to film, though they were likely more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the film appears to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that lingers even as many scenes consist of a handful of actors of people staring at digital devices.

It follows the same logic which allowed the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, explosive action and visual effects can show off large spending, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts to viewers also feels deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a narrative so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy entry to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters must believably occupy these luxurious, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently each person — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the vacuousness of online fame. Though it can be satisfying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to hope she evades capture, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt during ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it may occasionally seem as if he is acknowledging elements of modern online life without investigating them further. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title for the film might give fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places might also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, for now.