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“The entire situation reeks like a bad TV movie,” remarks a cynical commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee whose outlandish story he previously said he trusted. Yet his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, two streaming movies about a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers before killing them feels like a modern-day version of a lurid yet cable-ready weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect about Influencers remains just how superior it is compared to much of the competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller that should give other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder resumes with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to her partner that someone ought to attempt leaving a device-obsessed influencer somewhere without any devices to see if they can survive. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt regarding her version of the events, which includes the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to juice his career as half of a right-wing-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in the part, which seems particularly custom-fit to her strengths. (She also designed CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the sequel’s focus leans heavily into 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 employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade one another. Of course, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales at little cost, a skill which CW mirrors with her more overt scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding stunning locations to visit, though they were presumably less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the film seems to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that remains even when many scenes involve a relatively small cast of people staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise look so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, big action and special effects can display a big budget, however just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also feels inherently cinematic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature this much aerial pool video. These individuals must believably occupy these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uneasy irony of how often each person — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time under the light of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a rant targeting the emptiness of online fame. While it is gratifying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to hope she evades capture, the filmmaker is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, Harder seems to trust that merely watching 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 through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it may occasionally seem that he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, for now.