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“This whole affair stinks like a cheap made-for-TV,” observes a cynical commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an outlandish story he once claimed he believed. But his description of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, two streaming movies chronicling a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars before killing them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is just how superior it proves to be than plenty of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the suspense film that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) 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 most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder resumes with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to her partner that a person should try leaving a phone-addicted online personality in a place without any devices and see if they can survive. Is this a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the special treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her recounting of the events, including the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that typically capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears particularly custom-fit to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still works as a tale of dueling amateur detectives, with both women both use fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade one another. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for getting to explore posh places without paying much, a skill which CW mirrors with her more overt scheming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating stunning locations to film, though they were likely less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that remains even as many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle that made the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, big action and special effects can display large spending, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems deeply filmic. It’s also especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy online content.

Every character in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much aerial pool video. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — even the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, the director has not crafted a rant targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it can be satisfying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to hope she evades capture, Harder is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob at work will reveal that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim by it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem that he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is especially true regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel for the film could offer fans of the first movie hope for 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 sleek Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, for now.