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“Everything about this stinks of a bad TV movie,” states an opportunistic podcaster during 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. Yet his assessment of what’s happening in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of films on demand about a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of online influencers and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a lurid but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers is how much better it proves to be than plenty of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that a person ought to attempt leaving a device-obsessed influencer somewhere without any devices and see whether they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment afforded one clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion regarding her version of the events, including the murder of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the curated images that typically attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in the part, which seems particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a story of rival investigators, with both women both use fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue or evade each other. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding stunning locations to visit, although they were presumably less nefarious in their methods. Most of the film appears to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that lingers even when numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, explosive action and special effects can display a big budget, but simply offering a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. It’s also especially fitting for a story so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy entry to impossibly chic modern bungalows; there are movies concerning beach rescuers which don't feature as much aerial pool video. The characters must believably occupy these lush, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it can be gratifying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is relatively understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the loneliness Madison felt during ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem that he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without investigating them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a frenzied, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what keeps it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, for now.