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“The entire situation stinks of a cheap TV movie,” remarks an opportunistic podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose outlandish story he previously said he trusted. Yet his description of the events in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of films on demand chronicling a young woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid but network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers remains just how superior it is than plenty of its competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (for a time) 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 latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that a person ought to attempt stranding a device-obsessed online personality somewhere with no technology and see if they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion over her recounting of the events, including the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that typically attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the follow-up's focus leans heavily into CW — the original felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a tale of rival amateur detectives, with both women both use fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase or evade one another. Then again, perhaps the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales at little cost, a skill that CW echoes with her more overt scheming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating stunning locations to visit, although they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the film appears to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even when many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish over the years: Indeed, explosive action and special effects can show off a big budget, however just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems deeply filmic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle of creating envy-inducing online content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; there are movies concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals must believably inhabit these luxurious, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently each person — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless 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 emptiness of the influencer industry. While it is gratifying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt during ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at bits of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film might give fans of the first movie expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the movie does eventually provide that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, for now.