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“Everything about this reeks of a cheap made-for-TV,” states an opportunistic commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of films on demand chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers before killing them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers remains how much better it is than plenty of its competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses traveling alone social media targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their online accounts. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that someone ought to attempt stranding a device-obsessed online personality in a place with no technology to see if they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the preferential treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt regarding her recounting of what happened, including the murder of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, which seems especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the follow-up's focus leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a story of rival amateur detectives, with both women employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue or evade each other. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding stunning locations to film, although they were likely more legitimate in their methods. Most of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even as numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise look so consistently opulent for decades: Yes, explosive action and visual effects can display a big budget, but simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to impossibly chic modern bungalows; there are movies concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much aerial pool video. The characters have to convincingly occupy 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 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 rant against the emptiness of online fame. While it can be satisfying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is relatively sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt while on supposedly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists turning into a caricature the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, 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 investigating them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel for the film might give devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than a frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places may also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, for now.