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“This whole affair smells like a cheap TV movie,” remarks a cynical podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. Yet his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, two streaming movies about a woman who worms her way into the worlds of social media stars before killing them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers is just how superior it is compared to much of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their doom, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by taking control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers some early mystery, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to her partner that a person should try leaving a phone-addicted online personality somewhere without any devices to see if they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt over her recounting of what happened, including the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally capture CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward CW — the original felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a story of rival investigators, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue and/or escape each other. Then again, perhaps the vast resources isn’t necessary. Influencers have a talent for getting to explore posh places without paying much, a skill which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding stunning locations to visit, though they were likely more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the film appears to be shot on location, providing it a real-world weight that remains even when many scenes consist of a handful of actors of characters staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise appear so persistently lavish for decades: Indeed, big action and visual effects can show off large spending, however just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also feels inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle of creating envy-inducing online content.

Every character in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to impossibly chic modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it is satisfying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to hope she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt while on supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he resists turning into a caricature the character. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at bits of modern online life without investigating them further. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the story, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title for the film could offer fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it’s more like a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, for now.