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“This whole affair smells like a bad TV movie,” remarks a cynical commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an outlandish story he once said he trusted. But his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of streaming movies about a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of social media stars and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers is just how superior it is compared to much of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by taking control of their socials. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that someone should try leaving a device-obsessed influencer somewhere without any devices and see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the special treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints 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 exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion regarding her version of what happened, which includes the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to juice his career as half of a right-wing-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images that typically attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems especially custom-fit for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching outfits.) While the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a story of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape each other. Then again, perhaps the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales at little cost, an ability that CW echoes with her more overt scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating stunning locations to visit, although they were likely less nefarious about it. Most of the film seems to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight that remains even when many scenes involve a handful of actors of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent for decades: Yes, big action and visual effects can display large spending, but just providing a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a story so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a rant targeting the vacuousness of online fame. Though it can be satisfying to see CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he tapped into the loneliness Madison felt while on ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character further. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring 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 of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than an wild-eyed, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places may also be what keeps it from seeming like utter horror. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, for now.