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“Everything about this stinks of a bad made-for-TV,” states a cynical commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an outlandish story he once said he trusted. Yet his assessment of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of films on demand about a young woman who worms her way into the worlds of social media stars before killing them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers remains how much better it proves to be than plenty of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to Diane that someone ought to attempt stranding a device-obsessed online personality somewhere with no technology and see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion regarding her recounting of what happened, including the murder of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that normally capture CW's interest.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems especially tailor-made for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the sequel’s focus tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a story of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to chase and/or escape each other. Of course, perhaps the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to posh places without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding stunning locations to visit, though they were likely more legitimate about it. Most of the movie appears to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even when many scenes involve a handful of actors of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can show off large spending, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts to viewers also feels deeply filmic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it is gratifying to see CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the loneliness Madison felt during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids turning into a caricature the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at bits of contemporary digital culture without investigating them further. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it should have. The retitled sequel for the film might give fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. The world might be saturated with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.