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“This whole affair stinks of a cheap TV movie,” remarks an opportunistic podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an outlandish story he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of the events in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of films on demand about a woman who worms her way into the lives of social media stars and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers remains just how superior it is compared to much of its competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (for a time) by seizing control of their online accounts. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early mystery, as returning writer-director the director resumes with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate their one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and ire.

CW remarks to her partner that someone ought to attempt stranding 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 after witnessing the preferential treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt regarding her recounting of the events, including the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a right-wing-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, which seems particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) Although the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a tale of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape one another. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to posh places without paying much, an ability that CW echoes with her more overt scheming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally ingenious about finding stunning locations to visit, although they were presumably less nefarious about it. Most of the film appears to be shot on location, providing it a real-world weight that remains even when numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, big action and special effects can display a big budget, but just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to impossibly chic modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature as much aerial pool video. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these lush, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed against the emptiness of online fame. Though it is satisfying to see CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced during supposedly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet 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 is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places might also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, for now.