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“This whole affair smells like a bad made-for-TV,” observes a cynical commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee whose outlandish story he once claimed he believed. But his assessment of the events on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, two films on demand about a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing regarding Influencers is just how superior it proves to be compared to much of its competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, entices them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their online accounts. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and ire.

CW remarks to her partner that a person should try leaving a phone-addicted influencer in a place without any devices and see if they can make it. Is this an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the preferential treatment afforded one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt over her recounting of what happened, which includes the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a right-wing-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) While the sequel’s focus tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of dueling investigators, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase or evade one another. Of course, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for gaining access to posh places without paying much, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding stunning locations to film, though they were likely less nefarious about it. Most of the film appears to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that lingers even when numerous sequences consist of a relatively small cast of people looking at digital devices.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, big action and visual effects can display a big budget, but simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a story so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; there are movies concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters must believably occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently each person — including the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time under the light of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a rant against the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it can be gratifying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of this balanced approach is that it may occasionally seem as if he is acknowledging elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers could offer devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it’s more like a polished Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, at least for now.