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“This whole affair stinks like a cheap made-for-TV,” remarks a cynical commentator midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. Yet his description of the events on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies about a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers before killing them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers is how much better it proves to be than plenty of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that a person should try leaving a phone-addicted influencer somewhere with no technology and see if they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the preferential treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion over her recounting of what happened, which includes the murder of Madison’s 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 is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally capture CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in the part, which seems particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of rival investigators, with both women both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape each other. Then again, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore posh places at little cost, a skill that CW echoes with her more overt scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding beautiful places to visit, although they were likely more legitimate in their methods. Most of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that remains even when many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent for decades: Yes, big action and special effects can display a big budget, however just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing digital content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these lush, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it is gratifying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt during supposedly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids turning into a caricature the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them further. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer devotees of the original hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the movie does eventually provide that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places might also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. Our society may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but reality itself remains present, for now.