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“This whole affair stinks of a cheap TV movie,” remarks an opportunistic podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose outlandish story he once said he trusted. Yet his description of the events on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry but network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers is how much better it is than plenty of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the Original 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 doom, and covers up those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their socials. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning writer-director the director resumes with the character CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that someone ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted influencer somewhere with no technology and see if they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of committing CW’s crimes, but still faces doubt regarding her version of the events, including the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a right-wing-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking wardrobe.) While the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still functions as a story of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue and/or escape one another. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore posh places without paying much, 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 beautiful places to visit, although they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. Most of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even when many scenes consist of a handful of actors of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, explosive action and visual effects can display large spending, however just providing a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. It’s also especially fitting for a story so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic modern bungalows; there are movies concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed against the vacuousness of online fame. While it is gratifying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification lets us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is relatively understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the loneliness Madison felt during ostensibly dream getaways. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging elements of modern online life without investigating them further. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers might give fans of the first movie hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, for now.