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“Everything about this reeks of a cheap made-for-TV,” observes an opportunistic commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, his tone is manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee with an bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. Yet his description of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of films on demand chronicling a young woman who worms her way into the worlds of online influencers and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid yet cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers is how much better it proves to be compared to much of its competition, regardless of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early mystery, when returning filmmaker the director resumes with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to her partner that a person ought to attempt stranding a device-obsessed online personality in a place with no technology and see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now exonerated for committing CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion regarding her version of the events, which includes the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a right-wing-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, which seems particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) Although the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a story of dueling investigators, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase or evade one another. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to posh places without paying much, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating stunning locations to film, although they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the film seems to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that lingers even when numerous sequences consist of a relatively small cast of people staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, explosive action and special effects can display large spending, but just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems deeply filmic. It’s also especially fitting for a story so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing digital content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to impossibly chic modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters must believably occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how often everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. Though it is satisfying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced while on supposedly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob at work will reveal that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach is that it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development that lacks the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title of Influencers might give fans of the first movie hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it’s more like a polished Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places might also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. Our society might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.