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“The entire situation stinks of a bad TV movie,” observes a cynical commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, his tone is manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee with an bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. Yet his assessment of the events in the movie isn't inaccurate. Superficially, two films on demand chronicling a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing regarding Influencers is just how superior it is than plenty of its competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their doom, and covers up those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW contentedly residing 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 anger.

CW remarks to her partner that someone ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted influencer in a place without any devices to see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the special treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her recounting of the events, including the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to juice his career as part of a right-wing-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that normally attract CW's interest.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems especially tailor-made for her talents. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced 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. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a talent for getting to explore posh places without paying much, a skill which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding stunning locations to film, although they were likely more legitimate about it. Most of the film seems to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that lingers even as numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, big action and visual effects can show off large spending, but simply offering a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems deeply filmic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a story so rooted in the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters must believably inhabit these lush, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently each person — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it can be gratifying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment allows us to wish she evades capture, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced while on supposedly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is especially true of the way he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title for the film could offer devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations 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 exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.