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“Everything about this stinks of a cheap made-for-TV,” observes an opportunistic podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. Yet his description of the events on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, two films on demand chronicling a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a lurid yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains just how superior it is than plenty of its competition, irrespective of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early mystery, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder resumes with the character CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW remarks to her partner that someone should try leaving a device-obsessed online personality somewhere without any devices and see whether they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the special treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of committing CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her recounting of the events, including the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to juice his career as part of a right-wing-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that normally capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) While the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a story of rival investigators, with both women employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade each other. Of course, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a talent for getting to explore posh places at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating stunning locations to visit, although they were presumably more legitimate about it. The vast majority 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 people staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the James Bond movies appear so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, explosive action and visual effects can show off a big budget, but just providing a travelogue of sorts 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 of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; there are movies concerning beach rescuers which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters have to convincingly occupy these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the emptiness of online fame. While it is gratifying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification allows us to hope she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt during ostensibly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at bits of modern online life without investigating them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he brings AI into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel for the film could offer fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places may also be what keeps it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself is still here, for now.