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“The entire situation smells like a bad made-for-TV,” states an opportunistic commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose 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 about a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing regarding Influencers is how much better it is compared to much of the competition, irrespective of screen size. 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 mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers a degree of mystery, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder resumes with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and ire.

CW remarks to her partner that a person 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? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of committing CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her version of the events, which includes the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to juice his career as part of a right-wing-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems especially tailor-made for her talents. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) While the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a story of dueling amateur detectives, with both women both use fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase and/or escape each other. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales without paying much, a skill that CW echoes with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating stunning locations to visit, although they were likely less nefarious in their methods. Most of the film seems to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that lingers even as many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of people looking at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, big action and special effects can show off large spending, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters must believably occupy these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uneasy irony of how often everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. Though it can be gratifying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt while on supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will reveal that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character further. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his true devotion to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he brings AI into the story, an intriguing development that lacks the psychosexual kick it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the film ultimately delivers that, with a suitably wild final act. But before that, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but reality itself remains present, at least for now.