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“Everything about this smells like a bad made-for-TV,” states a cynical commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose outlandish story he once said he trusted. But his assessment of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of films on demand chronicling a woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers before killing them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is how much better it is than plenty of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) by taking control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning writer-director the director resumes with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking the couple’s one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that a person should try leaving a device-obsessed online personality in a place with no technology to see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now cleared of committing CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion over her version of the events, which includes the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of rival investigators, with both women both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase or evade one another. Of course, perhaps the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to posh places at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding stunning locations to film, although they were likely more legitimate in their methods. Most of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even as numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of characters staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, big action and visual effects can display large spending, but just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also feels inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a story so rooted in the coexisting surface-level allure and desperate hustle of creating envy-inducing digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed 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 lets us to wish she evades capture, Harder is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced while on ostensibly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists turning into a caricature the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is particularly evident regarding how he brings AI into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title for the film could offer devotees of the original hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, at least for now.