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“The entire situation stinks like a cheap made-for-TV,” remarks a cynical podcaster during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. Yet his description of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, two streaming movies chronicling a woman who worms her way into the worlds of online influencers and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains how much better it is compared to much of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving 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 conceals those deaths (for a time) by taking control of their socials. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to Diane that someone ought to attempt leaving a device-obsessed online personality in a place without any devices to see whether they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion over her version of what happened, including the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to juice his career as part of a right-wing-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images that normally attract CW's interest.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems especially tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) While the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still functions as a story of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape one another. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a talent for getting to explore posh places at little cost, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating stunning locations to film, although they were presumably less nefarious about it. Most 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 people staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can show off large spending, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems deeply filmic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy entry to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off this much aerial pool video. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, the director has not crafted a rant against the emptiness of online fame. While it can be satisfying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to wish she evades capture, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt while on 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 false masculinity to other doofuses; he resists turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the story, an intriguing development that lacks the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel of Influencers might give devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the film ultimately delivers that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it’s more like a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what keeps it from seeming like utter horror. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.