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“The entire situation stinks of a cheap TV movie,” states a cynical commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. But his description of the events in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, two films on demand about a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of online influencers and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a lurid but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers remains how much better it is compared to much of its competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early mystery, as returning writer-director the director picks up with the character CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and ire.

CW comments to Diane that someone should try leaving a phone-addicted influencer in a place without any devices and see whether they can make it. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her version of the events, which includes the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a right-wing-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the curated images that typically capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in the part, a role that appears particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking wardrobe.) While the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a tale of dueling investigators, with both women employ fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade one another. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a talent for getting to explore luxurious locales without paying much, a skill which CW mirrors with her more overt scheming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

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 seems to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even as numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies appear so persistently lavish for decades: Indeed, big action and special effects can display large spending, however just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels deeply filmic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters have to convincingly inhabit these lush, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the vacuousness of online fame. Though it is gratifying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to hope she evades capture, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he tapped into the loneliness Madison felt during ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob in action will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists turning into a caricature the character. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without investigating them further. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title for the film might give fans of the first movie expectations of an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with an appropriately wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, for now.