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“Everything about this reeks of a cheap made-for-TV,” observes an opportunistic commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. Yet his assessment of the events in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a woman who worms her way into the worlds of online influencers and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers remains how much better it is compared to much of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that a person should try leaving a device-obsessed online personality in a place with no technology to see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her version of what happened, including the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to juice his career as half of a right-wing-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that normally capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, which seems particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking wardrobe.) Although the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward CW — the original felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of rival investigators, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to chase or evade one another. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales at little cost, a skill which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating beautiful places to film, although they were presumably more legitimate about it. Most of the movie seems to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight that lingers even as numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of characters staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish over the years: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can show off a big budget, however simply offering a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards that don’t show off as much aerial pool footage. The characters must believably inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the emptiness of online fame. While it is gratifying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is relatively understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the loneliness Madison felt while on ostensibly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he resists turning into a caricature the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident regarding how he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title of Influencers could offer devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. But before that, it’s more like a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places might also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, for now.