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“The entire situation smells of a bad TV movie,” remarks a cynical commentator midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an outlandish story he once said he trusted. But his assessment of the events in the movie isn’t wrong. On its face, two films on demand about a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of social media stars and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a lurid yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers is just how superior it is than plenty of its competition, irrespective of screen size. It is precisely the thriller that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with CW contentedly residing 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 remarks to her partner that someone ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted online personality somewhere with no technology to see if they can make it. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion over her version of what happened, which includes the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that normally capture CW's interest.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in the part, which seems particularly custom-fit to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the follow-up's focus leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a tale of rival investigators, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape each other. Of course, perhaps the vast resources isn’t necessary. Influencers have a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating stunning locations to film, though they were likely less nefarious about it. The vast majority of the movie appears to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that lingers even when numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of characters staring at digital devices.

It follows the same logic that made the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, big action and special effects can display large spending, but simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a story so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy online content.

Every character visiting Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off this much aerial pool video. These individuals must believably inhabit these lush, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how often everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the emptiness of online fame. Though it is gratifying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt while on supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at bits of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is especially true of the way he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title for the film could offer devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the movie does eventually provide that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what keeps it from seeming like utter horror. Our society may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.