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“The entire situation smells of a cheap TV movie,” states an opportunistic podcaster during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an bizarre tale he once said he trusted. But his description of the events in the movie isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies about a woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers before killing them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet cable-ready weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be compared to much of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of thriller that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning writer-director the director picks up with the character CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking the couple’s first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to her partner that a person ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted influencer somewhere without any devices to see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the preferential treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now cleared of committing CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion over her recounting of what happened, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images that normally capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the original felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a story of rival investigators, with both women both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape each other. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales without paying much, a skill which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally ingenious about finding stunning locations to visit, although they were likely more legitimate in their methods. Most of the film seems to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even as numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of people staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, explosive action and visual effects can display large spending, however just providing a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a narrative so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters have to convincingly occupy these lush, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently each person — even the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the emptiness of online fame. Though it is gratifying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the loneliness Madison experienced during supposedly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without investigating them further. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title for the film might give fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what keeps it from seeming like utter horror. The world might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, for now.