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“The entire situation smells of a bad made-for-TV,” remarks a cynical podcaster during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. But his assessment of the events on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, two streaming movies chronicling a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid but network-approved Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers is just how superior it proves to be than plenty of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film 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 (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to Diane that a person ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted influencer somewhere with no technology to see if they can make it. Is this an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the special treatment afforded one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion over her recounting of the events, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in the part, a role that appears particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) While the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a story of dueling amateur detectives, with both women employ fake accounts, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase or evade one another. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding beautiful places to film, though they were likely more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the movie appears to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that lingers even when numerous sequences consist of a relatively small cast of characters looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise look so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, big action and special effects can display a big budget, but simply offering a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals must believably occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the vacuousness of online fame. Though it is satisfying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification allows us to hope she evades capture, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt while on supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob at work will reveal 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, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without investigating them. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title for the film might give fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but reality itself remains present, at least for now.