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“This whole affair reeks of a bad made-for-TV,” remarks a cynical podcaster during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. Yet his assessment of the events in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of films on demand about a woman who worms her way into the lives of social media stars and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be compared to much of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and covers up those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that someone ought to attempt leaving a device-obsessed online personality in a place with no technology and see whether they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt regarding her recounting of what happened, which includes the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) While the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of rival amateur detectives, with both women employ fake accounts, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape one another. Then again, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales at little cost, an ability that CW echoes with her more overt scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding beautiful places to visit, although they were likely more legitimate in their methods. Most of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that lingers even when many scenes involve a relatively small cast of characters staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, explosive action and visual effects can show off a big budget, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; there are movies concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these lush, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the emptiness of online fame. Though it is satisfying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to hope she evades capture, Harder is relatively understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the loneliness Madison felt during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character further. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner 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 modern online life without deeply exploring them further. This is especially true of the way he brings AI into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers might give devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style escalation, and the movie does eventually provide exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than a frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, for now.