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“This whole affair reeks like a bad made-for-TV,” states a cynical commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. But his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of films on demand chronicling a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars before killing them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry but network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is just how superior it proves to be compared to much of its competition, irrespective of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, as returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and ire.

CW remarks to her partner that someone ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted online personality in a place without any devices to see whether they can make it. Is this an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the preferential treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion over her version of the events, including the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to juice his career as part of a right-wing-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images that normally attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, which seems especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of rival investigators, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue or evade each other. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, a skill that CW echoes with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding beautiful places to film, though they were presumably less nefarious in their methods. Most of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that lingers even as many scenes involve a relatively small cast of characters staring at digital devices.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise look so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, big action and special effects can show off a big budget, however just providing a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much aerial pool footage. The characters must believably occupy these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently each person — even the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — 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 targeting the vacuousness of online fame. Though it is gratifying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt during supposedly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not a victim by it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem that he’s nodding at bits of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film might give fans of the first movie expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.