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“Everything about this stinks of a bad TV movie,” states a cynical commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of what’s happening in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, two films on demand about a woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains how much better it proves to be compared to much of the competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early mystery, when returning writer-director the director picks up with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking their one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that someone should try stranding a phone-addicted online personality somewhere with no technology to see whether they can survive. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment given to one clout-chaser?

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 cleared of committing CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her recounting of what happened, which includes the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that typically attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She also designed CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the sequel’s focus tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a story of rival investigators, with both women employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue or evade one another. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Influencers have a talent for getting to explore posh places without paying much, an ability that CW echoes with her more overt scheming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding stunning locations to film, though they were likely more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the film appears to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that remains even as numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of characters looking at digital devices.

It follows the same logic that made the Bond franchise appear so persistently lavish for decades: Indeed, big action and special effects can display a big budget, however just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much aerial pool footage. These individuals must believably occupy these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time under the light of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the vacuousness of online fame. Though it is gratifying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced while on supposedly dream getaways. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it may occasionally seem as if he is acknowledging elements of modern online life without investigating them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he brings AI into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel for the film might give fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the movie does eventually provide that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. The world might be saturated with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, for now.