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“Everything about this smells like a cheap made-for-TV,” observes a cynical commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. Yet his assessment of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. Superficially, two streaming movies chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a lurid but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be than plenty of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that a person should try stranding a device-obsessed influencer somewhere with no technology and see if they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of committing CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt regarding her version of what happened, which includes the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears especially custom-fit for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) While the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a story of dueling investigators, with both women both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade each other. Then again, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors with her more overt scheming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally resourceful in locating stunning locations to film, although they were likely less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even when many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of people looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, big action and special effects can show off a big budget, however just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels deeply filmic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting surface-level allure and desperate hustle of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals must believably occupy these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently each person — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it is gratifying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification allows us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is relatively understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it may occasionally seem that he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel of Influencers might give devotees of the original hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.