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“This whole affair stinks of a bad TV movie,” states a cynical commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. But his description of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, two streaming movies about a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars before killing them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid but cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains how much better it proves to be compared to much of its competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that a person ought to attempt leaving a device-obsessed online personality somewhere with no technology and see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt regarding her version of the events, including the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) While the sequel’s focus tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between the two women — it still functions as a tale of rival investigators, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape each other. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to posh places without paying much, a skill which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding beautiful places to film, though they were likely less nefarious about it. The vast majority of the movie seems to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even as many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of characters looking at digital devices.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish for decades: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can show off large spending, but just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems deeply filmic. It’s also especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

Every character in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it can be satisfying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is relatively understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced during ostensibly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids 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, yet Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at bits of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is especially true regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film could offer devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it’s more like a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a wild-eyed, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what keeps it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, for now.