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“Everything about this stinks of a cheap made-for-TV,” states an opportunistic podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. Yet his assessment of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies about a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of online influencers and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers is just how superior it proves to be than plenty of its competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the suspense film that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The movie leaves off (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 on her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning writer-director the director resumes with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip 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 leaving a phone-addicted online personality in a place with no technology to see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt regarding her recounting of what happened, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a right-wing-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that normally capture CW's interest.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in the part, which seems particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a tale of rival investigators, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade one another. Of course, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to posh places at little cost, a skill that CW echoes with her more overt scheming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding stunning locations to visit, although they were likely more legitimate in their methods. Most of the film appears to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even as many scenes involve a handful of actors of people looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise appear so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, big action and visual effects can show off large spending, however just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals must believably inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed against the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it is satisfying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt while on supposedly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he resists turning into a caricature the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without investigating them further. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title for the film might give devotees of the original hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what prevents 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.