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“The entire situation reeks of a bad made-for-TV,” states a cynical commentator midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee with an bizarre tale he once said he trusted. Yet his description of the events in the movie isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies about a woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing regarding Influencers is how much better it is compared to much of the competition, regardless of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those murders (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, as returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to her partner that someone ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted online personality somewhere with no technology to see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the special treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, but still faces doubt regarding her recounting of the events, which includes the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to juice his career as part of a right-wing-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though 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 especially custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still works as a story of dueling investigators, with both women employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape one another. Of course, maybe 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 with her more overt scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful in locating stunning locations to film, though they were likely less nefarious in their methods. Most of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even as many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise appear so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, big action and special effects can show off a big budget, but simply offering a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels deeply filmic. It’s also especially fitting for a narrative so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature as much aerial pool footage. The characters must believably occupy these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it can be gratifying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to hope she evades capture, the filmmaker is relatively sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced while on ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other doofuses; he resists turning into a caricature the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title for the film could offer devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. The world might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, for now.