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“Everything about this reeks of a bad made-for-TV,” observes an opportunistic podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose outlandish story he once said he trusted. But his assessment of the events on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, a pair of films on demand chronicling a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of online influencers and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers remains how much better it is compared to much of the competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with the character CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to Diane that a person should try leaving a device-obsessed influencer somewhere with no technology to see whether they can make it. Is this an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the special treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of committing CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt regarding her version of the events, which includes the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images that normally capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in her role, which seems particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) While the sequel’s focus tips heavily toward CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — 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 pursue or evade each other. Then again, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales at little cost, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding beautiful places to visit, although they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the film seems to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight that remains even as numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can show off a big budget, however just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems deeply filmic. It’s also especially fitting for a story so rooted in the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy entry to impossibly chic modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature as much aerial pool video. The characters have to convincingly inhabit these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uneasy irony of how often everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless 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 online fame. While it can be satisfying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt while on supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids caricaturing the character further. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem as if he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without investigating them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel for the film could offer devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style escalation, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. But before that, it’s more like a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. The world might be saturated with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself remains present, at least for now.