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“This whole affair smells like a cheap made-for-TV,” observes a cynical podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. But his description of the events in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, two films on demand about a young woman who worms her way into the worlds of online influencers before killing them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but network-approved weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains how much better it is compared to much of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It is precisely the thriller capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning writer-director the director resumes with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to Diane that a person ought to attempt stranding a device-obsessed online personality in a place without any devices to see if they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment afforded one clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion regarding her recounting of what happened, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that normally capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) Although the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still works as a tale of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue and/or escape each other. Then again, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Influencers have a talent for getting to explore posh places at little cost, an ability that CW echoes with her more overt scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating beautiful places to visit, though they were presumably less nefarious about it. Most of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that lingers even when numerous sequences consist of a relatively small cast of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the Bond franchise appear so persistently lavish for decades: Indeed, big action and visual effects can display large spending, but simply offering a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy online content.

Every character visiting Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much aerial pool video. The characters have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how often each person — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it is gratifying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is relatively understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt while on ostensibly dream getaways. Here, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob in action will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists turning into a caricature the character further. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach is that it can sometimes appear that 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 that lacks the psychosexual kick it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers might give fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. Our society might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, for now.