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“The entire situation smells of a cheap TV movie,” observes an opportunistic commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee with an bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. Yet his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of films on demand chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers is how much better it proves to be compared to much of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with the character CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that someone ought to attempt stranding a device-obsessed online personality in a place with no technology to see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the special treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her recounting of what happened, including the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a right-wing-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in the part, which seems especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a tale of dueling amateur detectives, with both women both use fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase or evade one another. Then again, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales at little cost, a skill which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating stunning locations to film, though they were presumably more legitimate about it. Most of the film seems to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that lingers even when many scenes involve a relatively small cast of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle that made the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, big action and special effects can show off large spending, but simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals must believably inhabit these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it is satisfying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to wish she evades capture, Harder is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced while on supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his true devotion to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at bits of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. But before that, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.