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“This whole affair stinks of a bad made-for-TV,” states a cynical commentator midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. Yet his description of what’s happening in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of films on demand about a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid but network-approved Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers is just how superior it is than plenty of the competition, regardless of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers a degree of ambiguity, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to Diane that someone ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted influencer somewhere without any devices and see if they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment afforded one clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion over her recounting of the events, including the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically capture CW's interest.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward 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, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase and/or escape each other. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales at little cost, a skill that CW echoes with her more overt scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding stunning locations to visit, though they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the film appears to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that lingers even as numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the Bond franchise appear so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, big action and special effects can show off large spending, but simply offering a kind of visual tour to viewers also feels deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to impossibly chic modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much aerial pool footage. The characters must believably inhabit these luxurious, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently each person — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the vacuousness of the influencer industry. Though it is satisfying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is relatively understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced while on ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other doofuses; he resists turning into a caricature the character further. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it’s more like a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places might also be what prevents it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, for now.