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“This whole affair reeks like a cheap made-for-TV,” remarks a cynical podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose outlandish story he previously claimed he believed. But his assessment of the events in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, two films on demand about a woman who worms her way into the lives of social media stars before killing them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid but network-approved weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect about Influencers remains 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 its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by taking control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, as returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to her partner that a person should try leaving a phone-addicted online personality somewhere without any devices to see if they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, now cleared of committing CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt regarding her recounting of what happened, including the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears especially tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking wardrobe.) 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 tale of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade one another. Then again, perhaps the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally ingenious about finding beautiful places to visit, though they were likely more legitimate in their methods. Most of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that lingers even when numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of people looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise look so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, explosive action and special effects can display a big budget, however just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle 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 contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — even the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant against the emptiness of online fame. While it can be satisfying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced while on ostensibly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he resists turning into a caricature the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is especially true regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, 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 might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, for now.