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“The entire situation smells of a bad made-for-TV,” observes an opportunistic podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose bizarre tale he once said he trusted. But his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, two films on demand about a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains just how superior it is compared to much of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller capable of giving its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those murders (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. 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 provides the 2025 Influencers some early mystery, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to Diane that someone should try leaving a phone-addicted online personality in a place with no technology and see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt regarding her recounting of the events, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a right-wing-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that typically capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears especially tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) Although the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a tale of dueling amateur detectives, with both women both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue or evade one another. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales at little cost, a skill which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding beautiful places to visit, though they were likely less nefarious about it. The vast majority of the film 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 people staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the James Bond movies appear so persistently lavish over the years: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can show off a big budget, however just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also feels inherently cinematic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards that don’t show off as much aerial pool video. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these lush, remote places to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant targeting the emptiness of online fame. While it can be gratifying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he tapped into the loneliness Madison felt during supposedly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character further. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The other side of this balanced approach is that it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without investigating them further. This is especially true of the way he brings AI into the plot, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title for the film might give fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it’s more like a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places might also be what keeps it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, at least for now.