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“The entire situation stinks of a cheap made-for-TV,” remarks a cynical podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an outlandish story he previously said he trusted. Yet his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a young woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a lurid yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers is how much better it is than plenty of the competition, regardless of screen size. It is precisely the thriller that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning filmmaker the director resumes with the character CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to her partner that someone ought to attempt stranding a device-obsessed online personality in a place with no technology and see if they can survive. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of committing CW’s crimes, but still faces doubt regarding her version of the events, including the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images that normally attract CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of dueling investigators, with both women both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to chase and/or escape each other. Of course, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to posh places without paying much, a skill which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers appear equally ingenious in locating beautiful places to visit, although they were likely less nefarious about it. Most of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even when numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of people looking at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent for decades: Yes, explosive action and special effects can display large spending, but simply offering a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels deeply filmic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle of creating envy-inducing online content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these lush, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently each person — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it can be gratifying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification allows us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he tapped into the loneliness Madison felt while on supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids turning into a caricature the character. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film could offer devotees of the original hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, at least for now.