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“Everything about this stinks of a cheap made-for-TV,” observes a cynical commentator midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee with an outlandish story he previously claimed he believed. Yet his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, two films on demand about a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid but network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is how much better it is compared to much of its competition, regardless 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

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, 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 an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, as returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that a person ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted online personality somewhere without any devices and see whether they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her recounting of what happened, including the murder of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that typically attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in the part, a role that appears especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a tale of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape one another. 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 scheming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding beautiful places to visit, although 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 lingers even when many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish over the years: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can show off a big budget, however just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing online content.

Every character visiting Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off as much aerial pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these lush, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nevertheless devotes much time under the light of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the vacuousness of online fame. Though it is satisfying to see CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt during ostensibly dream getaways. Here, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob at work will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it may occasionally seem that he’s nodding at bits of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title for the film might give devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it’s more like a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places may also be what keeps it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, for now.