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“Everything about this stinks like a bad made-for-TV,” observes a cynical commentator 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 claimed he believed. Yet his description of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, two streaming movies chronicling a woman who worms her way into the worlds 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 regarding Influencers is how much better it is compared to much of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their online accounts. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning writer-director the director resumes with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking their one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to her partner that a person should try stranding a phone-addicted online personality in a place without any devices and see whether they can make it. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her recounting of what happened, including the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that normally capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears particularly custom-fit to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking wardrobe.) While the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of rival investigators, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase or evade each other. Of course, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for getting to explore posh places at little cost, a skill which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding beautiful places to visit, though they were likely more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the film seems to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even when numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the Bond franchise appear so persistently lavish over the years: Indeed, big action and visual effects can display large spending, but just providing a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and desperate hustle of creating envy-inducing digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to impossibly chic modern bungalows; there are movies concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much aerial pool video. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. Though it is gratifying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is relatively understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt during ostensibly dream getaways. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers might give fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the movie does eventually provide that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places may also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. The world might be saturated with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, for now.