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“The entire situation reeks of a cheap made-for-TV,” remarks a cynical podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an outlandish story he once said he trusted. But his description of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of films on demand about a woman who worms her way into the worlds of online influencers before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing regarding Influencers is how much better it proves to be compared to much of its competition, irrespective of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and covers up those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. 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), reverses their roles against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers a degree of ambiguity, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that someone should try stranding a device-obsessed influencer in a place without any devices to see whether they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, now exonerated for committing CW's offenses, but still faces doubt regarding her version 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 right-wing-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems especially custom-fit for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a tale of dueling investigators, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase or evade one another. Of course, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for getting to explore luxurious locales without paying much, a skill which CW mirrors with her more overt scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding beautiful places to visit, although they were likely less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the film appears to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even as numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, explosive action and special effects can show off a big budget, however simply offering a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have 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 inhabit these lush, remote places to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently each person — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nevertheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, the director has not crafted a rant against the vacuousness of online fame. While it is satisfying to see CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to hope she evades capture, Harder is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt while on ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists turning into a caricature the character. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not someone exploited by it.

The other side of this balanced approach is that 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, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title for the film could offer devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the film does eventually provide that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself is still here, for now.