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“This whole affair reeks of a bad made-for-TV,” remarks a cynical commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose outlandish story he previously said he trusted. But his description of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a young woman who worms her way into the worlds of online influencers and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains just how superior it is compared to much of its competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The movie leaves off (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 lends 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that a person ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted influencer in a place with no technology to see whether they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of committing CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt over her recounting of what happened, including the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically capture CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in the part, which seems particularly custom-fit to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) While the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a story of dueling amateur detectives, with both women both use fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase or evade one another. Of course, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for getting to explore posh places without paying much, an ability that CW echoes with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally ingenious in locating beautiful places to film, although they were likely less nefarious about it. The vast majority of the movie appears to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even as numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, big action and special effects can display a big budget, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much aerial pool video. The characters have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how often everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant against the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it is gratifying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to hope she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt during ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob at work will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it may occasionally seem as if he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film might give devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. The world might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself is still here, for now.