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“The entire situation reeks of a cheap made-for-TV,” remarks a cynical commentator midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose outlandish story he previously claimed he believed. Yet his assessment of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of streaming movies about a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of social media stars before killing them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry yet cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers is just how superior it proves to be than plenty of its competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller that should give other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early 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 first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to Diane that someone should try leaving a phone-addicted online personality in a place without any devices and see if they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of committing CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion over her recounting of what happened, including the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a right-wing-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems especially tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the sequel’s focus tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a tale of rival amateur detectives, with both women both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape one another. Of course, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to posh places at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating beautiful places to visit, although they were likely more legitimate in their methods. Most of the movie seems to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even as many scenes consist of a handful of actors of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise appear so persistently lavish for decades: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can display large spending, however just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also feels deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a story so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; there are movies concerning beach rescuers which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nevertheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it can be satisfying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he tapped into the loneliness Madison felt during supposedly dream getaways. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title of Influencers could offer devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. But before that, it’s more like a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, for now.