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“This whole affair reeks of a cheap made-for-TV,” remarks an opportunistic commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee with an outlandish story he previously said he trusted. But his description of the events in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies about a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of social media stars before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing regarding Influencers is just how superior it proves to be compared to much of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of thriller that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their doom, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers a degree of ambiguity, as returning filmmaker the director picks up with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to her partner that someone should try stranding a phone-addicted influencer in a place without any devices to see if they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her recounting of the events, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a right-wing-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally capture CW's interest.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in the part, which seems especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) Although the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward CW — the original felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of dueling investigators, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue and/or escape each other. Then again, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating stunning locations to visit, although they were presumably more legitimate about it. Most of the movie seems to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even as numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent for decades: Yes, explosive action and special effects can display a big budget, however simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. It’s also especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy entry to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much aerial pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — including the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant against the vacuousness of online fame. Though it is satisfying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt while on ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is particularly evident regarding how he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel for the film could offer fans of the first movie expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the film does eventually provide that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, at least for now.