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“Everything about this stinks of a cheap TV movie,” observes a cynical podcaster during the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he once said he trusted. Yet his description of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of films on demand chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of online influencers before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid but network-approved weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is just how superior it proves to be compared to much of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller that should give other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that a person should try stranding a device-obsessed online personality somewhere without any devices and see if they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now exonerated for committing CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her recounting of the events, including the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to juice his career as half of a right-wing-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in the part, which seems especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She also designed CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between the two women — it still functions as a tale of dueling investigators, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and an apparently limitless travel fund to chase and/or escape one another. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to posh places at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally ingenious in locating beautiful places to film, although they were likely more legitimate about it. Most of the film seems to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight that lingers even as many scenes consist of a handful of actors of people staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, big action and visual effects can show off a big budget, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a story so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle of creating envy-inducing online content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters must believably occupy these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it is gratifying to see CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to hope she evades capture, Harder is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced while on ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without investigating them further. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie hope for an Aliens-style escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what keeps it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, for now.