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“Everything about this reeks like a bad TV movie,” states an opportunistic podcaster during the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, his tone is manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. But his description of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, two streaming movies about a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of social media stars and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be compared to much of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their doom, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning filmmaker the director picks up with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that a person ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted influencer somewhere with no technology and see if they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment afforded one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her version of the events, including the murder of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that normally attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears especially custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a story of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase or evade each other. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for gaining access to posh places without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors with her more overt scheming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating beautiful places to film, although they were presumably more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that lingers even as numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of people staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the James Bond movies appear so persistently lavish over the years: Indeed, big action and special effects can show off a big budget, however simply offering a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. It’s also especially fitting for a narrative so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to impossibly chic modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals must believably inhabit these lush, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — even the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it can be satisfying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification allows us to hope she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt while on supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he resists turning into a caricature the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them further. This is especially true regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title for the film might give devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the film ultimately delivers that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, for now.