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“This whole affair smells like a bad made-for-TV,” remarks an opportunistic commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. Yet his description of what’s happening in the movie isn’t wrong. On its face, a pair of streaming movies about a young woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers before killing them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains how much better it proves to be compared to much of its competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the suspense film that should give other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the mysterious 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 marooned on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This lends 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW happily living 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 eye and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that a person should try leaving a device-obsessed influencer somewhere without any devices to see if they can make it. Is this an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the special treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of committing CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt over her version of the events, 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 right-wing-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that typically capture CW's interest.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) While the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still works as a story of dueling investigators, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue and/or escape each other. Then again, perhaps the vast resources isn’t necessary. Influencers have a knack for gaining access to posh places without paying much, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating beautiful places to film, although they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the film seems to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that lingers even as numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of characters staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent for decades: Yes, explosive action and visual effects can show off a big budget, however just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a story so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing online content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature this much aerial pool video. The characters have to convincingly occupy these lush, remote places to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the vacuousness of online fame. Though it can be satisfying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification allows us to wish she evades capture, Harder is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced during ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he resists turning into a caricature the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not a victim by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without investigating them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel for the film might give fans of the first movie expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the movie does eventually provide exactly that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than a frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, for now.