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“This whole affair stinks like a cheap TV movie,” states an opportunistic commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. But his description of the events in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, two films on demand about a young woman who worms her way into the lives of social media stars and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but cable-ready weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect about Influencers remains how much better it is compared to much of the competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) by taking control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, as returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking the couple’s one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW remarks to her partner that a person ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted influencer in a place with no technology to see if they can make it. Is this 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 changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her recounting of what happened, including the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in the part, a role that appears especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking wardrobe.) While the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a story of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase or evade each other. Of course, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore posh places at little cost, a skill that CW echoes with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating stunning locations to visit, though they were presumably more legitimate about it. Most of the film seems to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even as many scenes involve a relatively small cast of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, big action and special effects can display a big budget, but just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also feels deeply filmic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time under the light of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it is gratifying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to wish she evades capture, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt while on ostensibly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is especially true regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development that lacks the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title for the film could offer fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. But before that, it’s more like a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, at least for now.