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“This whole affair stinks like a cheap TV movie,” states an opportunistic commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose outlandish story he previously claimed he believed. But his assessment of what’s happening in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of films on demand chronicling a young woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be compared to much of its competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing 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), reverses their roles against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning filmmaker the director resumes with the character CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to Diane that someone should try stranding a phone-addicted online personality somewhere with no technology to see if they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion over her recounting of what happened, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the curated images that normally capture CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) Although the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a tale of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase and/or escape one another. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for gaining access to posh places without paying much, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful in locating stunning locations to film, though they were likely less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that remains even when numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of characters looking at digital devices.

It follows the same logic that made the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish for decades: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can display large spending, but just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy entry to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters must believably occupy these lush, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how often everyone — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time under the light of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant against the emptiness of online fame. While it can be gratifying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to hope she evades capture, Harder is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he tapped into the loneliness Madison felt during supposedly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob at work 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 genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not someone exploited by it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at bits of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is especially true regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers might give devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style escalation, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it’s more like a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. Our society may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, for now.