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“Everything about this smells like a cheap TV movie,” observes an opportunistic commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. Yet his description of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, two streaming movies chronicling a woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a lurid yet cable-ready weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains just how superior it is than plenty of its competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving its peers 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 quietly chooses traveling alone 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 stranded on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This lends 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, as returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that a person should try leaving a phone-addicted influencer in a place with no technology and see if they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the special treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW's offenses, but still faces doubt over her recounting of the events, including the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears especially custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) While the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still works as a story of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue and/or escape each other. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally ingenious about finding stunning locations to visit, although they were likely more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the film seems to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight that lingers even as many scenes involve a relatively small cast of people looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, big action and visual effects can show off a big budget, however simply offering a kind of visual tour 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 digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy entry to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature this much aerial pool video. These individuals must believably occupy these lush, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — including the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nevertheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the emptiness of online fame. While it can be gratifying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to hope she evades capture, Harder is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt during ostensibly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The other side of this balanced approach is that it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without investigating them. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title of Influencers could offer devotees of the original hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide exactly that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.