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“The entire situation reeks like a cheap made-for-TV,” states a cynical commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. Yet his assessment of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry but network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains just how superior it is than plenty of its competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (for a time) by taking control of their socials. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning writer-director the director picks up with the character CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that someone should try leaving a phone-addicted online personality in a place without any devices and see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the special treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of committing CW's offenses, but still faces doubt regarding her recounting of the events, including the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to juice his career as half of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the curated images that typically attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems especially custom-fit for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of dueling investigators, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue and/or escape each other. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales at little cost, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding beautiful places to visit, although they were likely less nefarious about it. Most of the film seems to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that lingers even as numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent for decades: Yes, explosive action and special effects can show off large spending, however just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy online content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature as much aerial pool footage. The characters have to convincingly inhabit these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the vacuousness of online fame. While it can be gratifying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is relatively sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt during ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists turning into a caricature the character further. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title for the film might give devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.