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“This whole affair stinks like a cheap TV movie,” observes an opportunistic podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose outlandish story he previously claimed he believed. But his assessment of the events on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, a pair of streaming movies about a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a lurid but network-approved Movie of the Week. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains how much better it is compared to much of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their doom, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early mystery, as returning filmmaker the director resumes with the character CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to Diane that a person should try stranding a phone-addicted influencer somewhere with no technology and see whether they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the preferential treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of committing CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt regarding her recounting of what happened, including the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, which seems especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a tale of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase and/or escape each other. Then again, perhaps the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales without paying much, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding stunning locations to film, though they were presumably less nefarious about it. The vast majority of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that lingers even when numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise look so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, big action and special effects can show off a big budget, however simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a story so rooted in the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing digital content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much aerial pool footage. The characters must believably inhabit these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently each person — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed against the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it can be satisfying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the loneliness Madison experienced during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it may occasionally seem that he’s nodding at bits of modern online life without investigating them. This is especially true regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title of Influencers might give fans of the first movie expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places might also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, for now.