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“The entire situation smells of a bad made-for-TV,” observes a cynical podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. But his assessment of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a woman who worms her way into the worlds of online influencers before killing them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is just how superior it is compared to much of its competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early mystery, as returning writer-director the director picks up with the character CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that a person should try leaving a device-obsessed online personality somewhere without any devices and see if they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, eventually clarifying 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 over her recounting of the events, including the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in the part, a role that appears especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a tale of rival amateur detectives, with both women both use fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase or evade one another. Then again, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for getting to explore luxurious locales at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding stunning locations to film, although they were likely less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that lingers even as numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, explosive action and special effects can display large spending, but just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a story so rooted in the coexisting superficial glamour and desperate hustle of creating envy-inducing digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals must believably occupy these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a rant targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it can be satisfying to see CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the loneliness Madison experienced while on supposedly dream getaways. Here, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem that he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The pluralized title for the film could offer devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style escalation, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what prevents it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself is still here, at least for now.