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“This whole affair reeks like a cheap made-for-TV,” states an opportunistic commentator midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an outlandish story he previously said he trusted. Yet his assessment of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of streaming movies chronicling 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 tawdry but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains just how superior it is than plenty of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) by taking control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers some early mystery, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking their one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and ire.

CW comments to her partner that someone ought to attempt leaving a device-obsessed influencer in a place with no technology to see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion over her recounting of what happened, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to juice his career as part of a right-wing-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically capture CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) While the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of rival investigators, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase or evade one another. Of course, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore posh places without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding beautiful places to visit, although they were likely more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that lingers even as numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of people looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish for decades: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can display large spending, however just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also feels inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a story so rooted in the coexisting surface-level allure and desperate hustle of creating envy-inducing digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to impossibly chic modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals must believably occupy these luxurious, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently each person — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow 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 is gratifying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to hope she evades capture, Harder is relatively understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the loneliness Madison experienced during ostensibly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob in action will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his true devotion to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not someone exploited by it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is especially true of the way he brings AI into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film could offer fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. But before that, it’s more like a polished Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, for now.