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“The entire situation smells of a bad TV movie,” states an opportunistic podcaster during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. Yet his assessment of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, two streaming movies chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry but cable-ready weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is just how superior it proves to be than plenty of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, entices them to their doom, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early mystery, when returning writer-director the director picks up with the character CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip 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 someone ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted online personality in a place with no technology to see whether they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of committing CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her recounting of what happened, which includes the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than 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 striking wardrobe.) While the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a story of rival amateur detectives, with both women employ fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape one another. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales at little cost, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding beautiful places to film, although they were presumably less nefarious about it. Most of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that remains even when many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, big action and visual effects can display a big budget, however simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle of creating envy-inducing online content.

Every character in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off as much aerial pool footage. The characters have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how often everyone — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it can be gratifying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the loneliness Madison felt while on 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 false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids caricaturing the character further. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it may occasionally seem that he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident 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 might give fans of the first movie hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. But before that, it’s more like a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, for now.