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“The entire situation reeks of a bad TV movie,” observes a cynical commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee whose outlandish story he once claimed he believed. But his description of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of films on demand about a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a lurid yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect about Influencers remains just how superior it is compared to much of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that someone should try leaving a phone-addicted influencer in a place with no technology and see if they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, now exonerated for committing CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her recounting of what happened, including the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a tale of rival investigators, with both women employ fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue or evade one another. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore posh places at little cost, a skill which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding stunning locations to film, although they were presumably less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the movie seems to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that lingers even as many scenes consist of a handful of actors of people staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish over the years: Indeed, big action and visual effects can display a big budget, but just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels deeply filmic. It’s also especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle of creating envy-inducing digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nevertheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant against the vacuousness of online fame. Though it is gratifying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment allows us to hope she evades capture, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt during ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of this balanced approach is that it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the story, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but reality itself remains present, at least for now.