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“The entire situation stinks of a cheap TV movie,” observes an opportunistic podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an outlandish story he previously said he trusted. Yet his description of the events in the movie isn’t wrong. On its face, two films on demand chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of social media stars and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid but network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains how much better it proves to be than plenty of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and covers up those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning filmmaker the director picks up with the character CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that someone should try stranding a device-obsessed online personality somewhere without any devices and see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the special treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, now cleared of committing CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt over her recounting of the events, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part 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 typically attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking wardrobe.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of dueling amateur detectives, with both women both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase or evade one another. Then again, perhaps 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 scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly 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 a real-world weight that remains even as numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of people staring at digital devices.

It follows the same logic which allowed the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish over the years: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can display large spending, however just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature as much aerial pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed against the vacuousness of the influencer industry. Though it is gratifying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification allows us to hope she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt while on ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob in action will reveal that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity 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 Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it may occasionally seem that he’s nodding at bits of modern online life without investigating them. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title for the film might give fans of the first movie expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.