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“Everything about this smells like a bad TV movie,” states an opportunistic commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee whose outlandish story he once claimed he believed. Yet his assessment of what’s happening in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of films on demand chronicling a young woman who worms her way into the worlds of online influencers and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid but network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is just how superior it proves to be compared to much of its competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning filmmaker the director picks up with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that a person ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted influencer in a place with no technology and see whether they can make it. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now cleared of committing CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt regarding her recounting of the events, including 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), though his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the curated images that normally capture CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in her role, which seems particularly custom-fit to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) While the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a story of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase and/or escape one another. Of course, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales at little cost, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding beautiful places to film, although they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. Most of the movie seems to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that lingers even when many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise look so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, explosive action and visual effects can show off a big budget, however just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also feels deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature this much aerial pool video. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to highlight the uneasy irony of how often everyone — even the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant against the emptiness of online fame. While it can be satisfying to see CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced while on supposedly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob in action will reveal that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he resists turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging elements of modern online life without investigating them further. This is especially true of the way he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title of Influencers might give fans of the first movie hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what prevents it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but reality itself remains present, at least for now.