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“Everything about this smells like a cheap TV movie,” states a cynical podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose bizarre tale he once said he trusted. But his description of the events on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, two films on demand about a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers remains how much better it is than plenty of its competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer 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, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning filmmaker the director resumes with CW happily living with her girlfriend 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 ire.

CW remarks to Diane that someone should try leaving a phone-addicted influencer somewhere with no technology to see if they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of committing CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion over her version of what happened, which includes the murder of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a right-wing-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that normally capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in the part, a role that appears particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) 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 rival amateur detectives, with both women both use fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape each other. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Influencers have a knack for gaining access to posh places without paying much, a skill which CW mirrors with her more overt scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating beautiful places to visit, though they were likely less nefarious about it. Most of the movie seems to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight that remains even when many scenes consist of a handful of actors of characters looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise appear so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, explosive action and special effects can display a big budget, however just providing a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to impossibly chic modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off this much aerial pool video. These individuals must believably inhabit these lush, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the vacuousness of online fame. Though it can be satisfying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced during ostensibly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it deserves. The pluralized title for the film might give devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, for now.