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“Everything about this smells of a bad made-for-TV,” observes an opportunistic commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose outlandish story he previously said he trusted. But his description of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, two films on demand about a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of social media stars and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry but network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers is just how superior it proves to be than plenty of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the suspense film that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers a degree of mystery, as returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to her partner that a person ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted influencer somewhere with no technology to see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt regarding her recounting of the events, including the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically capture CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears especially custom-fit for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the follow-up's focus leans heavily into CW — the first film seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still works as a tale of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade one another. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for getting to explore posh places at little cost, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding stunning locations to film, although they were presumably less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that remains even when numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of people looking at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies appear so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, big action and visual effects can display large spending, however just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so rooted in the coexisting surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals must believably inhabit these lush, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — even the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a rant against the emptiness of online fame. While it is gratifying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification lets us to hope she evades capture, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced during ostensibly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob in action will reveal that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging 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 that lacks the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel for the film might give devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than a wild-eyed, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.