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“Everything about this smells like a cheap made-for-TV,” remarks a cynical commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of the events on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, two films on demand about a young woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers before killing them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers is just how superior it is than plenty of its competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) 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 some early ambiguity, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW remarks to her partner that someone should try stranding a device-obsessed online personality somewhere with no technology to see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her recounting of the events, including the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) Although the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward CW — the original felt more equally divided between the two women — it still functions as a story of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape one another. Then again, perhaps the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a talent for getting to explore posh places at little cost, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding beautiful places to visit, though they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. Most of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that remains even when numerous sequences consist of a relatively small cast of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, big action and visual effects can display large spending, however just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems deeply filmic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy online content.

Every character in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to impossibly chic modern bungalows; there are movies concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals must believably inhabit these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently each person — including the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant targeting the vacuousness of online fame. While it can be satisfying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is relatively understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced while on supposedly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach is that it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at bits of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development that lacks the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel for the film could offer devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a wild-eyed, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself is still here, at least for now.