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“This whole affair stinks of a cheap made-for-TV,” observes an opportunistic podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, his tone is manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee with an outlandish story he previously claimed he believed. But his assessment of the events in the movie isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of films on demand chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry but cable-ready weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is how much better it proves to be compared to much of its competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the suspense film that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their socials. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles 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. During a trip to celebrate their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to her partner that a person should try stranding a phone-addicted online personality somewhere with no technology to see if they can survive. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment afforded one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt regarding her recounting of the events, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in the part, a role that appears especially custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a story of dueling investigators, with both women employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue and/or escape each other. Then again, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally ingenious in locating beautiful places to film, although they were presumably less nefarious in their methods. Most of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even when numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of people looking at digital devices.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, big action and visual effects can show off large spending, but simply offering a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a story so rooted in the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to impossibly chic modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — even the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nevertheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed against the emptiness of online fame. Though it can be gratifying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt while on supposedly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem that he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is especially true regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychological edge it should have. The retitled sequel of Influencers might give fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the movie does eventually provide that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places may also be what prevents it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, at least for now.