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“Everything about this reeks of a bad TV movie,” observes a cynical podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. But his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of films on demand about a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of online influencers before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid but cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be compared to much of its competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, entices them to their doom, and covers up those murders (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, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning writer-director the director picks up with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that a person should try stranding a phone-addicted online personality somewhere without any devices and see if they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt over her recounting of the events, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a right-wing-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that normally attract CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears especially custom-fit for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking wardrobe.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a story of dueling investigators, with both women employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase and/or escape one another. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore posh places at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers appear equally ingenious in locating beautiful places to film, though they were likely more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the film appears to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that remains even when numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of characters looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish for decades: Indeed, explosive action and special effects can show off large spending, however just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a story so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters must believably inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — even the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the vacuousness of online fame. Though it is gratifying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to hope she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt during ostensibly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without investigating them. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development that lacks the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film could offer devotees of the original hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places might also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.