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“This whole affair reeks like a cheap TV movie,” observes an opportunistic podcaster during the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose outlandish story he previously said he trusted. But his description of what’s happening in the movie isn’t wrong. On its face, two streaming movies about a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of social media stars and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains how much better it is than plenty of its competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early mystery, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with the character CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that a person should try leaving a device-obsessed online personality in a place without any devices and see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion 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 power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that typically attract CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, which seems particularly custom-fit to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking wardrobe.) While the sequel’s focus tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a tale of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade one another. Of course, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, a skill which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating stunning locations to film, though they were likely less nefarious in their methods. Most of the movie appears to be shot on location, providing it a real-world weight that remains even when many scenes involve a handful of actors of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent over the years: 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 narrative so rooted in the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy entry to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature as much aerial pool footage. The characters must believably occupy these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how often each person — including the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed against the vacuousness of online fame. While it is gratifying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to hope she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is relatively understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will reveal that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them further. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the plot, 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 an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, for now.