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“Everything about this stinks of a bad made-for-TV,” observes a cynical commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose outlandish story he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of the events in the movie isn’t wrong. On its face, a pair of films on demand chronicling a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers before killing them feels like a modern-day version of a lurid yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers remains just how superior it is than plenty of its competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning writer-director the director picks up with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and ire.

CW remarks to her partner that someone should try stranding a device-obsessed online personality somewhere with no technology and see if they can survive. Is this a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt over her version of the events, which includes the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the curated images that typically attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears especially tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking wardrobe.) While the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of dueling investigators, with both women both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase or evade each other. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales at little cost, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating stunning locations to visit, though they were likely more legitimate in their methods. Most of the film appears to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even when many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of people looking at digital devices.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, big action and visual effects can display large spending, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a narrative so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters have to convincingly inhabit these lush, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how often everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it is satisfying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to hope she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he resists turning into a caricature the character further. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers might give fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with an appropriately wild final act. But before that, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself remains present, for now.