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“The entire situation stinks of a cheap made-for-TV,” remarks an opportunistic podcaster during the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. Yet his assessment of the events on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, two films on demand about a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be than plenty of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their socials. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and ire.

CW comments to Diane that a person ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted influencer in a place without any devices to see if they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of committing CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion over her version of the events, which includes the killing of her 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), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, which seems particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a tale of dueling investigators, with both women both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase or evade one another. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore posh places at little cost, a skill which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding beautiful places to film, though they were likely less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the movie appears to be shot on location, providing it a real-world weight that remains even as numerous sequences consist of a relatively small cast of people looking at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, big action and visual effects can show off large spending, however just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also feels inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to impossibly chic modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much aerial pool video. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently each person — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the emptiness of online fame. Though it is gratifying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification lets us to wish she evades capture, Harder is relatively understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will reveal that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he resists turning into a caricature the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at bits of modern online life without investigating them further. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than an wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. Our society may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, for now.