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“This whole affair smells of a bad made-for-TV,” states an opportunistic podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. Yet his assessment of the events in the movie isn’t wrong. On its face, two streaming movies chronicling 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 network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains how much better it is than plenty of its competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (for a time) by taking control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder resumes with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that someone should try stranding a phone-addicted influencer somewhere without any devices to see if they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out 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), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) While the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a story of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase or evade one another. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget 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.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful in locating stunning locations to visit, although they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that remains even as many scenes involve a handful of actors of people looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, big action and special effects can display large spending, but just providing a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. It’s also especially fitting for a story so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature this much aerial pool video. These individuals must believably occupy these lush, remote places to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently each person — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the vacuousness of online fame. While it can be satisfying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt during ostensibly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without investigating them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers that, with a suitably wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations might also be what keeps it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself remains present, at least for now.