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“This whole affair stinks like a cheap TV movie,” remarks a cynical commentator midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an outlandish story he previously said he trusted. Yet his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, two films on demand about a woman who worms her way into the worlds of social media stars before killing them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers remains just how superior it is compared to much of its competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

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

CW comments to her partner that a person should try stranding a device-obsessed online personality somewhere with no technology and see if they can make it. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW’s crimes, but still faces doubt regarding her recounting of what happened, which includes the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a right-wing-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically capture CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in her role, which seems especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still functions as a story of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and an apparently limitless travel fund to chase or evade one another. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors with her more overt scheming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding beautiful places to film, although they were presumably less nefarious about it. The vast majority of the film appears to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even when numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of people looking at digital devices.

It follows the same logic which allowed the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent for decades: Yes, explosive action and visual effects can show off large spending, but just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters have to convincingly inhabit these lush, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the vacuousness of online fame. Though it can be satisfying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification lets us to wish she evades capture, Harder is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced while on ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he resists turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The other side of this balanced approach is that it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at bits of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title of Influencers could offer devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide exactly that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, for now.