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“Everything about this stinks of a cheap TV movie,” observes a cynical podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee with an bizarre tale he once said he trusted. But his assessment of the events on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a young woman who worms her way into the lives of social media stars and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry but network-approved weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect about Influencers remains how much better it proves to be than plenty of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (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), turns the tables against her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder resumes with the character CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to her partner that someone ought to attempt stranding a device-obsessed online personality in a place without any devices and see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her recounting of the events, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that normally capture CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking wardrobe.) While the sequel’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, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase or evade one another. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for gaining access to posh places without paying much, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding beautiful places to visit, though they were likely more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the film appears to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight that remains even as many scenes involve a relatively small cast of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, explosive action and special effects can display a big budget, but simply offering a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. It’s also especially fitting for a story so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals must believably occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently each person — even the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the emptiness of online fame. While it is satisfying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is relatively sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced while on ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the story, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers could offer devotees of the original hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places might also be what keeps it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.