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“Everything about this smells like a cheap made-for-TV,” observes an opportunistic commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an outlandish story he previously said he trusted. Yet his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies about a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains just how superior it is compared to much of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their doom, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by taking control of their socials. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers a degree of mystery, as returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to her partner that someone should try stranding a phone-addicted online personality in a place with no technology and see if they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of committing CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt regarding her version of the events, including the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically capture CW's interest.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film felt more equally divided between the two women — it still functions as a tale of rival amateur detectives, with both women employ fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase or evade one another. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Influencers have a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally resourceful in locating beautiful places to visit, although they were likely more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the film appears to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even when numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of people staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, explosive action and special effects can show off a big budget, but just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems deeply filmic. It’s also 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, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to impossibly chic modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters must believably inhabit these lush, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the emptiness of online fame. Though it can be gratifying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt during ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob in action will reveal that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without investigating them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title of Influencers might give fans of the first movie hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.