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“Everything about this reeks of a cheap TV movie,” states a cynical commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose outlandish story he previously claimed he believed. Yet his description of what’s happening in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies about a young woman who worms her way into the worlds of online influencers before killing them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but network-approved Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers remains how much better it proves to be compared to much of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their doom, and conceals those murders (for a time) by taking control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and ire.

CW comments to her partner that someone ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted influencer somewhere with no technology to see if they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the preferential treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion over her recounting of what happened, including the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a right-wing-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically capture CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She also designed CW's eye-catching outfits.) While the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a story of dueling investigators, with both women both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape one another. Then again, perhaps the vast resources isn’t necessary. Influencers have a knack for gaining access to posh places at little cost, a skill which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally ingenious in locating stunning locations to film, although they were likely more legitimate about it. Most of the movie appears to be shot on location, providing it a real-world weight that lingers even as numerous sequences consist of a relatively small cast of characters looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent for decades: Yes, big action and visual effects can show off a big budget, but simply offering a travelogue of sorts to viewers also feels deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a story so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much aerial pool footage. The characters must believably occupy these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently each person — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it is gratifying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to hope she evades capture, the filmmaker is relatively understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced while on ostensibly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will reveal that he’s peddling false 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 partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it may occasionally seem as if he is acknowledging elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title for the film might give devotees of the original hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. But before that, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations might also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. The world might be saturated with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, for now.