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“This whole affair smells of a cheap made-for-TV,” remarks an opportunistic podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. But his description of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, two streaming movies about a woman who worms her way into the worlds of social media stars before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid but network-approved weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains how much better it is than plenty of its competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and covers up those murders (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning filmmaker the director picks up with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to Diane that someone should try stranding a phone-addicted online personality in a place without any devices and see whether they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the preferential treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of committing CW’s crimes, but still faces doubt over her recounting of the events, including the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to juice his career as half of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) Although the sequel’s focus tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a tale of dueling investigators, with both women employ fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase or evade each other. Of course, 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.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding stunning locations to film, though they were likely more legitimate in their methods. Most of the movie seems to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even when numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle that made the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish over the years: Indeed, big action and visual effects can display a big budget, but simply offering a kind of visual tour to viewers also feels deeply filmic. It’s also especially fitting for a story so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; there are movies concerning beach rescuers which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals must believably inhabit these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time under the light of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed against the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it is satisfying to see CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt during supposedly dream getaways. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title for the film might give fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. But before that, it’s more like a polished Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, 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 content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.