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“Everything about this reeks like a bad TV movie,” observes a cynical podcaster during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose outlandish story he once claimed he believed. Yet his assessment of the events in the movie isn’t wrong. On its face, two films on demand about a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry but network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers remains how much better it is compared to much of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the suspense film that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (for a time) by taking control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with the character CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that a person should try stranding a device-obsessed online personality in a place without any devices and see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces doubt over her recounting of what happened, including the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the curated images that typically attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in the part, a role that appears particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) Although the follow-up's focus leans heavily into CW — the original felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a tale of rival investigators, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue or evade one another. Of course, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for gaining access to posh places without paying much, a skill that CW echoes with her more overt scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating stunning locations to film, though they were presumably less nefarious about it. Most of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that lingers even when numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, explosive action and special effects can show off large spending, but just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters visiting 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 this much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters have to convincingly occupy these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed against the emptiness of online fame. Though it is gratifying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to hope she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt while on ostensibly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without investigating them. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel of Influencers might give devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places may also be what keeps it from seeming like utter horror. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, for now.