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“The entire situation reeks like a bad TV movie,” states an opportunistic podcaster during the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an outlandish story he once said he trusted. Yet his description of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, two streaming movies chronicling a woman who worms her way into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid but network-approved weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is just how superior it is compared to much of its competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller capable of giving its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with the character CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to her partner that a person ought to attempt leaving a device-obsessed online personality somewhere without any devices and see if they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the preferential treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of committing CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her version of what happened, which includes the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally capture CW's interest.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in the part, which seems particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward 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, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape one another. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for gaining access to posh places at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally ingenious about finding beautiful places to visit, although they were likely more legitimate in their methods. Most of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that lingers even when many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of people looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish for decades: Indeed, explosive action and special effects can show off a big budget, however just providing a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. It’s also especially fitting for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle of creating jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much aerial pool video. These individuals must believably occupy these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how often each person — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant against the vacuousness of online fame. Though it can be gratifying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt during supposedly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at bits of modern online life without investigating them further. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title for the film could offer devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide that, with a suitably wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what keeps it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.