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“This whole affair smells like a cheap TV movie,” remarks an opportunistic podcaster during the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose outlandish story he once said he trusted. But his description of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of streaming movies about a young woman who worms her way into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers is just how superior it proves to be than plenty of the competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses traveling alone social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking their one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and ire.

CW comments to Diane that a person ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted influencer somewhere without any devices and see if they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the special treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt over her recounting of what happened, including the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images that typically attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in the part, a role that appears especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) Although the sequel’s focus tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still works as a story of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape one another. Then again, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore posh places at little cost, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers appear equally ingenious in locating stunning locations to film, although they were likely less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the movie seems to be shot on location, providing it a real-world weight that remains even as numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of people looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise appear so persistently lavish over the years: Indeed, explosive action and special effects can display a big budget, however simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting superficial glamour and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

Every character in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much aerial pool video. These individuals must believably inhabit these luxurious, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — even the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the vacuousness of online fame. Though it is satisfying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt while on supposedly dream getaways. Here, the director appears confident that merely watching 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 genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The flip side of this balanced approach is that it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at bits of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it should have. The retitled sequel for the film might give devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the film does eventually provide that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it’s more like a polished Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.