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“Everything about this reeks of a bad made-for-TV,” remarks an opportunistic commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose outlandish story he previously claimed he believed. But his assessment of what’s happening in the movie isn’t wrong. On its face, a pair of films on demand chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of social media stars and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be than plenty of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers some early mystery, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that someone should try stranding a phone-addicted online personality somewhere without any devices and see if they can survive. 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 early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion regarding her version of the events, including the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to juice his career as part of a right-wing-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the original felt more equally divided between the two women — it still functions as a story of rival amateur detectives, with both women both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and an apparently limitless travel fund to chase or evade each other. Then again, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales at little cost, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally ingenious in locating beautiful places to visit, though they were likely less nefarious about it. The vast majority of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that lingers even when many scenes consist of a handful of actors of characters looking at digital devices.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, big action and special effects can display a big budget, but simply offering a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. It’s also especially fitting for a story so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently each person — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time under the light of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it is satisfying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the loneliness Madison felt during supposedly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will reveal that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he resists turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not a victim by it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title for the film could offer fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, for now.