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“The entire situation smells of a bad made-for-TV,” observes an opportunistic podcaster during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. But his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, two streaming movies about a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds 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 about Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be than plenty of its competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller that should give other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic 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 seizing control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder resumes with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and ire.

CW comments to her partner that a person should try leaving a phone-addicted online personality somewhere with no technology and see if they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the preferential treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now cleared of committing CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt over her recounting of what happened, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to juice his career as half of a right-wing-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally capture CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in the part, which seems especially tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the follow-up's focus leans heavily into CW — the original felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a tale of rival investigators, with both women employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently 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 luxurious locales at little cost, a skill that CW echoes with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding stunning locations to visit, although they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. Most of the movie appears to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight that lingers even as numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of people looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent for decades: Yes, explosive action and visual effects can show off large spending, but simply offering a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy entry to impossibly chic modern bungalows; there are movies concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently each person — including the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a rant targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it is satisfying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he resists turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them further. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the plot, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel for the film could offer devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it’s more like a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself is still here, for now.