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“The entire situation smells of a bad TV movie,” observes a cynical commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an outlandish story he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, two films on demand chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of social media stars and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers is how much better it is compared to much of the competition, regardless of screen size. It is precisely the thriller capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning writer-director the director resumes with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that someone ought to attempt leaving a device-obsessed influencer in a place without any devices to see whether they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion over her recounting of what happened, including the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that normally capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in her role, which seems especially tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a story of dueling investigators, with both women employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase or evade each other. Of course, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore posh places at little cost, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding stunning locations to film, though they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. Most of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even as many scenes consist of a handful of actors of characters staring at digital devices.

It follows the same logic that made the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, big action and special effects can display large spending, however simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems deeply filmic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy online content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature this much aerial pool footage. The characters must believably occupy these lush, remote places to emphasize the uneasy irony of how often everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted 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 allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced during ostensibly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives 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 by it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without investigating them. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title for the film might give devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. But before that, it’s more like a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than a wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself is still here, at least for now.