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“Everything about this reeks of a bad TV movie,” states a cynical podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose outlandish story he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of films on demand about a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing regarding Influencers is just how superior it is compared to much of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller that should give other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) by taking control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early mystery, as returning writer-director the director picks up with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking the couple’s first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that a person should try stranding a phone-addicted influencer in a place with no technology and see whether they can survive. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment afforded one clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion over her version of the events, including the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the curated images that typically capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears especially tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s focus tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of rival investigators, with both women employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently 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 getting to explore luxurious locales at little cost, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating stunning locations to film, although they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. Most of the movie seems to be shot on location, providing it a real-world weight that lingers even when many scenes consist of a handful of actors of people staring at digital devices.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, explosive action and visual effects can show off a big budget, however just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature as much aerial pool video. These individuals must believably inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a screed against the emptiness of online fame. Though it is satisfying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt during supposedly dream getaways. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development that lacks the psychosexual kick it deserves. The pluralized title for the film could offer devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.