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“Everything about this smells like a bad made-for-TV,” states a cynical podcaster during the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose outlandish story he previously claimed he believed. But his description of the events in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of films on demand about a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers before killing them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but network-approved weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect about Influencers is just how superior it proves to be than plenty of its competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It’s the kind of thriller that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, entices them to their doom, and covers up those deaths (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early mystery, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW remarks to her partner that a person ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted influencer in a place with no technology to see if they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of committing CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt over her version of what happened, including the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images that typically capture CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) Although the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a story of rival investigators, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase and/or escape one another. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for getting to explore posh places without paying much, an ability that CW echoes with her more overt scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding beautiful places to visit, though they were likely more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the movie appears to be shot on location, providing it a real-world weight that remains even as many scenes consist of a handful of actors of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, big action and visual effects can show off a big budget, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts to viewers also feels deeply filmic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature as much aerial pool footage. These individuals must believably occupy these luxurious, remote places to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed against the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it can be satisfying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. 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 caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it may occasionally seem that he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without investigating them further. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn 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 wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. 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 is still here, at least for now.