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“The entire situation stinks of a cheap made-for-TV,” states an opportunistic commentator midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. But his assessment of the events in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, two films on demand about a young woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is just how superior it is than plenty of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The movie leaves off (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 against her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character 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 eye and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that a person should try leaving a device-obsessed online personality in a place without any devices and see if they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints 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 regarding her version of what happened, including the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears particularly custom-fit to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film 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 a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase or evade one another. Then again, perhaps the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding stunning locations to visit, although they were presumably less nefarious about it. The vast majority of the film seems to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that lingers even when numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of people looking at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies appear so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, explosive action and visual effects can display large spending, but just providing a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a story so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals must believably occupy these lush, remote places to emphasize the uneasy irony of how often each person — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed against the vacuousness of online fame. Though it is satisfying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt while on supposedly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at bits of modern online life without investigating them. This is especially true of the way he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film could offer fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places might also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, for now.