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“This whole affair stinks like a cheap TV movie,” observes a cynical commentator midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an bizarre tale he once said he trusted. But his description of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a young woman who worms her way into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is just how superior it proves to be compared to much of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) 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 on her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early mystery, as returning filmmaker the director 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 eye and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that a person should try stranding a device-obsessed online personality in a place with no technology to see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion regarding her recounting of the events, which includes the murder of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally capture CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in her role, which seems particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a tale of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to chase or evade one another. Of course, perhaps the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for getting to explore luxurious locales at little cost, a skill which CW mirrors with her more overt scheming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally resourceful in locating stunning locations to film, although they were likely more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that lingers even as numerous sequences consist of a relatively small cast of people looking at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, big action and special effects can show off large spending, however just providing a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much aerial pool video. The characters have to convincingly occupy these lush, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed against the emptiness of online fame. While it can be satisfying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to hope she evades capture, Harder is relatively understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the loneliness Madison experienced during ostensibly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob in action will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging elements of modern online life without investigating them. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers might give fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a wild-eyed, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, for now.