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“This whole affair stinks like a cheap TV movie,” remarks a cynical podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee whose outlandish story he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, two films on demand chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars before killing them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid but network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers remains just how superior it is compared to much of its competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (at least temporarily) by taking control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning writer-director the director picks up with the character CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to her partner that someone should try leaving a phone-addicted online personality somewhere with no technology and see if they can survive. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, now exonerated for committing CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion over her version of what happened, including the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a right-wing-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, which seems particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original felt more equally divided between the two women — it still functions as a tale of dueling investigators, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to chase or evade one another. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Influencers have a talent for getting to explore posh places at little cost, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding beautiful places to visit, although they were likely more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the movie seems to be shot on location, providing it a real-world weight that lingers even as many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of characters looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, big action and visual effects can display a big budget, but simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems deeply filmic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting surface-level allure and desperate hustle of creating envy-inducing digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these lush, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — even the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the emptiness of online fame. While it is gratifying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense 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 keyed into the loneliness Madison felt while on supposedly dream getaways. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his true devotion to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim by it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging elements of modern online life without investigating them. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title for the film might give fans of the first movie expectations of an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers that, with a suitably wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than a wild-eyed, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places may also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.