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“This whole affair smells of a bad TV movie,” remarks a cynical podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. But his description of the events in the movie isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a woman who worms her way into the lives of social media stars before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid but network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding 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 capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning filmmaker the director picks up with the character CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking the couple’s one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to her partner that someone should try stranding a device-obsessed online personality in a place without any devices and see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the special treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now cleared of committing CW’s crimes, but still faces doubt regarding her version of the events, including the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She also designed CW's eye-catching outfits.) While the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a tale of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase and/or escape one another. Of course, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales without paying much, a skill that CW echoes with her more overt scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding beautiful places to film, although they were likely more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that lingers even as numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, big action and special effects can show off a big budget, however just providing a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a story so rooted in the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing digital content.

Every character in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to impossibly chic modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers which don't feature as much aerial pool video. The characters have to convincingly inhabit these lush, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed against the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it can be gratifying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt during supposedly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of this balanced approach is that it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without investigating them further. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it should have. The retitled sequel of Influencers might give devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from seeming 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, at least for now.