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“The entire situation reeks of a bad TV movie,” remarks a cynical commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an outlandish story he previously claimed he believed. Yet his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, two streaming movies about a young woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be than plenty of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their doom, and covers up those murders (for a time) by taking control of their socials. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder resumes with the character CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to her partner that someone ought to attempt stranding a device-obsessed online personality somewhere with no technology and see if they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her version of the events, which includes the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally attract CW's interest.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She also designed CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the original felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a story of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape each other. Then again, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales without paying much, a skill which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating beautiful places to visit, although they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. Most of the film seems to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that lingers even when many scenes involve a relatively small cast of people staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can display large spending, but just providing a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems deeply filmic. It’s also especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters must believably inhabit these lush, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — including the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the vacuousness of the influencer industry. Though it can be gratifying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to hope she evades capture, Harder is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he tapped into the loneliness Madison felt during ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at bits of contemporary digital culture without investigating them further. This is especially true of the way he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it should have. The retitled sequel for the film might give fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.