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“The entire situation smells of a cheap TV movie,” observes a cynical podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose outlandish story he once said he trusted. But his assessment of the events on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, two films on demand chronicling a young woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers is just how superior it is compared to much of its competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their socials. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, as returning writer-director the director resumes with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and ire.

CW comments to Diane that someone ought to attempt leaving a device-obsessed influencer in a place without any devices and see whether they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the preferential treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt regarding her version of what happened, which includes the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically attract CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in her role, which seems particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) While the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still works as a tale of dueling amateur detectives, with both women employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue and/or escape each other. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a talent for getting to explore posh places without paying much, a skill that CW echoes with her more overt scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding stunning locations to film, although they were likely less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the film seems to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that remains even when numerous sequences consist of a relatively small cast of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish over the years: Indeed, explosive action and special effects can show off large spending, however simply offering a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a story so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

Every character in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters must believably inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how often each person — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the vacuousness of online fame. Though it can be gratifying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced while on supposedly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids turning into a caricature the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his true devotion to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not someone exploited by it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without investigating them. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film might give devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the film ultimately delivers that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from seeming like utter horror. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.