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“This whole affair reeks like a bad TV movie,” states a cynical podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an outlandish story he once claimed he believed. But his description of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of films on demand about a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but network-approved weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be compared to much of its competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning filmmaker the director picks up with the character CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking their one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that someone ought to attempt leaving a device-obsessed online personality in a place without any devices to see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now cleared of committing CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt over her version of what happened, including the murder of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to juice his career as half of a right-wing-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that typically capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems particularly custom-fit to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) While the follow-up's focus leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a story of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to chase and/or escape each other. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for getting to explore posh places without paying much, 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 presumably more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that remains even when numerous sequences consist of a relatively small cast of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can show off large spending, but simply offering a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems deeply filmic. It’s also especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much aerial pool footage. The characters must believably occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nevertheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed against the vacuousness of online fame. While it can be gratifying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to hope she evades capture, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt during ostensibly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids turning into a caricature the character. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem as if he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title for the film could offer devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations might also be what keeps it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. The world might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.