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“The entire situation reeks of a bad TV movie,” states a cynical commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. Yet his assessment of the events in the movie isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of films on demand chronicling a woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers before killing them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid but cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be compared to much of its competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and ire.

CW comments to Diane that someone should try leaving a device-obsessed online personality in a place without any devices and see if they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, but still faces doubt regarding her version of what happened, which includes the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that typically attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in the part, which seems especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the original felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a tale of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase or evade one another. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore posh places without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding beautiful places to visit, though they were likely more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that remains even when many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of characters staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, big action and visual effects can show off large spending, but simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. It’s also especially fitting for a story so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals must believably inhabit these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how often each person — including the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time in the glow of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a screed against the vacuousness of online fame. While it is satisfying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is relatively understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the loneliness Madison experienced during supposedly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach is that it may occasionally seem that he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film might give fans of the first movie hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places may also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, for now.