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“This whole affair smells like a bad made-for-TV,” remarks an opportunistic podcaster during the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, his tone is manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee whose outlandish story he once claimed he believed. Yet his assessment of the events in the movie isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of films on demand chronicling a woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers before killing them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but network-approved Movie of the Week. The wild thing regarding Influencers is just how superior it is than plenty of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of thriller that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning filmmaker the director picks up with the character CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to her partner that someone should try stranding a device-obsessed online personality in a place with no technology to see if they can make it. Is this an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the special treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of committing CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion regarding her recounting of the events, including the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-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 terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) While the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the original felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still functions as a story of dueling amateur detectives, with both women employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase or evade one another. Of course, perhaps the vast resources isn’t necessary. Influencers have a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating beautiful places to visit, though they were presumably more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the movie seems to be shot on location, providing it a real-world weight that remains even as many scenes consist of a handful of actors of characters staring at digital devices.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish for decades: Indeed, big action and visual effects can display large spending, however just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters must believably occupy these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently each person — even the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a screed against the emptiness of online fame. Though it is satisfying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to hope she evades capture, the filmmaker is relatively understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character. 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 a victim by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at bits of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it deserves. The pluralized title for the film could offer devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it’s more like a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a wild-eyed, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. Our society may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, for now.