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“Everything about this reeks like a cheap TV movie,” states an opportunistic podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose outlandish story he previously said he trusted. Yet his description of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of films on demand chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of social media stars and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers is how much better it proves to be than plenty of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island off 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 writer-director the director picks up 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) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to her partner that a person ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted online personality in a place with no technology to see if they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the special treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple 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 regarding her recounting of the events, including the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to juice his career as part of a right-wing-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally capture CW's interest.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) While the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a tale of dueling investigators, with both women both use fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase or evade each other. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales at little cost, a skill which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating stunning locations to film, though they were likely less nefarious about it. The vast majority of the movie seems to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that lingers even as numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of people looking at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the James Bond movies appear so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, explosive action and visual effects can display a big budget, but just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing digital content.

Every character in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much aerial pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — even 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 against the vacuousness of the influencer industry. Though it can be satisfying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification allows us to hope she evades capture, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt during supposedly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not someone exploited by it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at bits of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers might give devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. But before that, it’s more like a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.