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“The entire situation reeks like a bad made-for-TV,” observes a cynical commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of films on demand about a woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers before killing them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be compared to much of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects 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 marooned on a deserted island off 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 resumes with the character CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to Diane that a person should try leaving a phone-addicted influencer in a place without any devices and see if they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion over her version of the events, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically capture CW's interest.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a tale of rival amateur detectives, with both women employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase or evade each other. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding stunning locations to visit, though they were likely less nefarious about it. The vast majority of the film seems to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that remains even as many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of characters looking at digital devices.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies appear so persistently lavish for decades: Indeed, explosive action and special effects can show off a big budget, however just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems deeply filmic. It’s also especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing digital content.

Every character in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy entry to impossibly chic modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much aerial pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, remote places to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently each person — including the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. Though it is satisfying to see CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification allows us to hope she evades capture, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt during supposedly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach is that it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title for the film might give fans of the first movie hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places might also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but reality itself remains present, for now.