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“The entire situation reeks like a cheap TV movie,” observes an opportunistic commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an outlandish story he previously said he trusted. Yet his assessment of what’s happening in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, two films on demand about a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but network-approved Movie of the Week. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be than plenty of the competition, regardless of screen size. It is precisely the thriller capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers some early mystery, when returning filmmaker the director picks up with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to Diane that a person ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted influencer in a place with no technology and see if they can make it. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her recounting of the events, which includes the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, which seems especially custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) Although the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a story of dueling investigators, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade each other. Of course, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore posh places without paying much, a skill which CW mirrors with her more overt scheming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding stunning locations to film, although they were presumably more legitimate about it. Most of the film seems to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that lingers even as many scenes involve a relatively small cast of people looking at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, explosive action and special effects can show off a big budget, however simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle of creating envy-inducing digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters have to convincingly occupy these lush, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — even the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it is satisfying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is relatively sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the loneliness Madison felt during supposedly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will reveal that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The other side of this balanced approach is that it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie hope for an Aliens-style escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. The world might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.