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“Everything about this reeks of a bad TV movie,” remarks a cynical podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee whose outlandish story he previously said he trusted. Yet his assessment of the events in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of films on demand about a woman who worms her way into the worlds of social media stars before killing them feels like a modern-day version of a lurid yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect about Influencers is how much better it is compared to much of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and covers up those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that a person ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted influencer somewhere without any devices to see whether they can make it. Is this an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the special treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt regarding her version of the events, including the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in the part, a role that appears particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) While the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a tale of rival amateur detectives, with both women both use fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape each other. Of course, perhaps the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore posh places without paying much, a skill which CW mirrors with her more overt scheming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating stunning locations to film, though they were likely less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that remains even when many scenes consist of a handful of actors of characters looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish for decades: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can show off large spending, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant targeting the emptiness of online fame. Though it can be satisfying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to hope she evades capture, the filmmaker is relatively sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the loneliness Madison experienced during supposedly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident regarding how he brings AI into the plot, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers might give fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but reality itself remains present, for now.