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“The entire situation reeks like a bad TV movie,” remarks a cynical podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. Superficially, two films on demand about a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of social media stars before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry but network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers is how much better it is compared to much of its competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, lures them to their doom, and covers up those murders (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends the 2025 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 their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that a person should try leaving a phone-addicted influencer somewhere without any devices and see if they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, now exonerated for committing CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion over her version of what happened, including the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically capture CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in the part, a role that appears particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) While the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a tale of dueling investigators, with both women employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase and/or escape each other. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding beautiful places to visit, though they were likely less nefarious about it. The vast majority of the film appears to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight that lingers even as numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent for decades: Yes, explosive action and special effects can display a big budget, however just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; there are movies concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much aerial pool video. The characters have to convincingly occupy these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it can be satisfying to see CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to wish she evades capture, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt while on ostensibly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids caricaturing the character further. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it may occasionally seem as if he is acknowledging elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them further. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the story, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what prevents it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself is still here, at least for now.