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“Everything about this stinks of a bad TV movie,” states an opportunistic podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose bizarre tale he once said he trusted. But 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 before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains just how superior it is than plenty of its competition, regardless of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their doom, 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 a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that a person should try leaving a phone-addicted online personality somewhere without any devices to see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the special treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt regarding her version of the events, which includes the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images that typically capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) Although the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still works as a tale of rival amateur detectives, with both women employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue or evade one another. Then again, perhaps the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales without paying much, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally resourceful in locating beautiful places to visit, although they were likely more legitimate in their methods. Most of the film seems to be shot on location, providing it a real-world weight that remains even when numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of people looking at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent for decades: Yes, explosive action and special effects can display large spending, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems deeply filmic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nevertheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed against the emptiness of online fame. While it is gratifying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt during ostensibly dream getaways. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists turning into a caricature the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them further. This is especially true of the way he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film might give fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. But before that, it’s more like a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself is still here, for now.