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“This whole affair smells of a bad made-for-TV,” states a cynical podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an outlandish story he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of streaming movies about a young woman who worms her way into the lives of social media stars before killing them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but cable-ready weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains just how superior it is than plenty of its competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller capable of giving its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island near 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 mystery, when returning filmmaker the director picks up with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to Diane that someone should try leaving a phone-addicted influencer somewhere with no technology and see if they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the special treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion regarding her recounting of the events, which includes the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that typically attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided 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 a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade one another. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to posh places without paying much, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally ingenious in locating beautiful places to film, although they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that remains even when numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of people staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies appear so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, big action and special effects can display large spending, however just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also feels deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a story so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers which don't feature as much aerial pool footage. The characters must believably occupy these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — including the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. Though it is satisfying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to wish she evades capture, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced while on supposedly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob at work will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers might give fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with an appropriately 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 prevents it from seeming like utter horror. The world might be saturated with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, for now.