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“Everything about this smells of a cheap made-for-TV,” observes a cynical commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an outlandish story he previously claimed he believed. But his assessment of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, two streaming movies chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers before killing them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is just how superior it proves to be compared to much of its competition, regardless of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and covers up those deaths (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers a degree of ambiguity, as returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with the character CW happily living with her girlfriend 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 her partner that a person ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted influencer in a place without any devices and see if they can make it. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt over her version of the events, including the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She also designed CW's eye-catching outfits.) While the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a tale of dueling amateur detectives, with both women employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase or evade each other. Of course, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales at little cost, a skill which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating stunning locations to film, although they were presumably more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that lingers even as numerous sequences consist of a relatively small cast of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, big action and visual effects can display a big budget, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems deeply filmic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a story so rooted in the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — even the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the vacuousness of online fame. While it is gratifying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt during supposedly dream getaways. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach is that it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title for the film could offer devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, for now.