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“Everything about this reeks of a bad TV movie,” observes a cynical commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose outlandish story he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, two streaming movies chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of online influencers before killing them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is just how superior it is compared to much of its competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning writer-director the director picks up with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking the couple’s one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that a person ought to attempt leaving a device-obsessed online personality somewhere with no technology and see if they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion regarding her recounting of the events, which includes the murder of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically capture CW's interest.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) While the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a story of rival amateur detectives, with both women employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue and/or escape one another. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. 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 stunning locations to visit, though they were likely less nefarious about it. The vast majority of the film seems to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even when many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of people staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, big action and visual effects can display large spending, however just providing a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. It’s also especially fitting for a story so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing digital content.

Every character in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently each person — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it is satisfying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to wish she evades capture, Harder is relatively understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced during ostensibly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids turning into a caricature the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach is that it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them further. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie hope for an Aliens-style escalation, and the movie does eventually provide that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what keeps it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, for now.