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“This whole affair reeks like 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 bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. But his description of what’s happening in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of social media stars and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers remains how much better it is compared to much of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that a person ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted online personality in a place without any devices and see if they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of committing CW's offenses, but still faces doubt regarding her version of what happened, including the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically capture CW's interest.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, which seems especially custom-fit for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still works as a story of rival investigators, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade one another. Of course, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for gaining access to posh places at little cost, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful in locating stunning locations to visit, though they were presumably less nefarious about it. Most of the movie appears to be shot on location, providing it a real-world weight that remains even as many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle that made the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can display a big budget, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much aerial pool footage. The characters have to convincingly occupy these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uneasy irony of how often each person — including the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it is satisfying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced while on supposedly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he resists turning into a caricature the character further. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without investigating them further. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it should have. The retitled sequel for the film could offer fans of the first movie expectations of an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places may also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, for now.