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“Everything about this reeks like a bad TV movie,” observes a cynical commentator midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. But his description of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies about a woman who worms her way into the lives of social media stars before killing them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry but network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers is how much better it is compared to much of the competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early mystery, as returning filmmaker the director picks up with the character CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to her partner that someone should try leaving a device-obsessed influencer in a place with no technology and see whether they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the special treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt regarding her version of what happened, which includes the murder of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that typically capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of rival investigators, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase or evade each other. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a talent for getting to explore luxurious locales at little cost, an ability that CW echoes with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating beautiful places to film, though they were likely more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that remains even when many scenes involve a handful of actors of people looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, explosive action and visual effects can show off a big budget, however just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. It’s also especially fitting for a story so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle of creating envy-inducing online content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals must believably occupy these luxurious, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — 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

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant against the vacuousness of the influencer industry. Though it can be satisfying to see CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to hope she evades capture, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced while on supposedly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will reveal that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel of Influencers might give fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the film does eventually provide that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. But before that, it’s more like a polished Hitchcock thriller than an wild-eyed, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself is still here, for now.