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“Everything about this stinks of a bad made-for-TV,” observes an opportunistic commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee whose outlandish story he previously said he trusted. Yet his description of the events on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars before killing them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet cable-ready weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect about Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be compared to much of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their doom, and covers up those murders (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and ire.

CW remarks to her partner that a person ought to attempt leaving a device-obsessed influencer in a place with no technology and see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces doubt over her recounting of the events, which includes the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to juice his career as half of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s focus tips heavily toward CW — the first film seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a story of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue or evade one another. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Influencers have a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, an ability that CW echoes with her more overt scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally ingenious about finding beautiful places to film, although they were likely more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the film appears to be shot on location, providing it a real-world weight that remains even when numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of people looking at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle that made the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, big action and special effects can show off a big budget, however just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy entry to impossibly chic modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how often everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the emptiness of online fame. Though it can be satisfying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to hope she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it may occasionally seem as if he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without investigating them. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development that lacks the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title for the film might give devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. But before that, it’s more like a polished Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, at least for now.