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“The entire situation smells of a cheap TV movie,” states an opportunistic commentator midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, 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 wrong. Superficially, two streaming movies chronicling a woman who worms her way into the worlds of online influencers before killing them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers remains just how superior it is than plenty of its competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the suspense film that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early mystery, as returning filmmaker the director picks up with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to Diane that someone ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted online personality somewhere with no technology and see whether they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now exonerated for committing CW's offenses, but still faces doubt regarding her version of what happened, including the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a right-wing-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the curated images that typically capture CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching outfits.) While the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still works as a tale of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase or evade each other. Of course, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for getting to explore posh places without paying much, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding stunning locations to film, although they were likely less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the film appears to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even as many scenes consist of a handful of actors of characters staring at digital devices.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise appear so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, explosive action and visual effects can display large spending, but just providing a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and desperate hustle of creating envy-inducing digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to impossibly chic modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize 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

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a screed against the vacuousness of online fame. Though it is satisfying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced during ostensibly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character further. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them further. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what keeps it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, for now.