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“This whole affair smells of a cheap made-for-TV,” remarks a cynical podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an outlandish story he once claimed he believed. But his assessment of the events on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of films on demand about a woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid but network-approved weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is how much better it proves to be compared to much of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, entices them to their doom, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning writer-director the director picks up with CW happily living 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 attention and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that a person should try leaving a device-obsessed influencer in a place without any devices and see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the special treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, but still faces doubt regarding her version of the events, including the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a right-wing-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) While the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of dueling amateur detectives, with both women employ fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue or evade one another. Of course, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore posh places at little cost, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally ingenious in locating stunning locations to film, although they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the film seems to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even as many scenes involve a handful of actors of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise appear so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, explosive action and special effects can display a big budget, but simply offering a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a story so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to impossibly chic modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, remote places to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the vacuousness of online fame. Though it can be gratifying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is relatively sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The other side of this balanced approach is that it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is especially true of the way he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title of Influencers might give fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places might also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.