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“This whole affair reeks of a bad made-for-TV,” observes an opportunistic commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. Yet his description of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, two streaming movies about a woman who worms her way into the lives of social media stars before killing them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry yet cable-ready weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is how much better it proves to be than plenty of its competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller that should give other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers some early mystery, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that someone should try stranding a device-obsessed online personality in a place with no technology and see whether they can survive. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW’s crimes, but still faces doubt regarding her version of what happened, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to juice his career as half of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images that typically capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) While the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still works as a story of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to chase or evade each other. Then again, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales at little cost, an ability that CW echoes with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding stunning locations to visit, though they were likely less nefarious about it. Most of the film seems to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity 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 which allowed the James Bond movies appear so persistently lavish over the years: Indeed, big action and visual effects can show off large spending, however just providing a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. It’s also especially fitting for a narrative so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently each person — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it is satisfying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he tapped into the loneliness Madison experienced while on supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The other side of this balanced approach is that it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at bits of contemporary digital culture without investigating them further. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the plot, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title for the film could offer devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.