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“Everything about this stinks like a bad made-for-TV,” observes a cynical commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. But his assessment of what’s happening in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, two streaming movies chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of online influencers and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about 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 First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their doom, and conceals those murders (for a time) by seizing control of their online accounts. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to Diane that a person should try leaving a device-obsessed influencer in a place without any devices to see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt over her recounting of what happened, including the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a right-wing-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that normally capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the original felt more equally divided between the two women — it still functions as a story of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase and/or escape one another. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating stunning locations to visit, although they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the film seems to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that remains even as many scenes involve a handful of actors of people looking at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, big action and visual effects can display large spending, however just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also feels deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how often everyone — including the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the emptiness of online fame. Though it can be gratifying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced while on ostensibly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids turning into a caricature the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; 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 is that it may occasionally seem 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, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychological edge it should have. The retitled sequel for the film could offer fans of the first movie hope for an Aliens-style escalation, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places might also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.