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“This whole affair reeks of a cheap TV movie,” observes an opportunistic podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. Yet his description of the events in the movie isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of social media stars and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be than plenty of its competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the suspense film that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, entices them to their doom, and conceals those murders (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, as returning writer-director the director picks up with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and ire.

CW comments to her partner that a person should try leaving a device-obsessed online personality somewhere with no technology to see whether they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt over her recounting of the events, including the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) While the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape each other. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for gaining access to posh places at little cost, a skill that CW echoes with her more overt scheming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally ingenious about finding beautiful places to film, though they were presumably more legitimate about it. Most of the film appears to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight 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 Bond franchise look so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, explosive action and special effects can show off a big budget, but just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals must believably inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to highlight the uneasy irony of how often everyone — including the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nevertheless devotes much time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it can be satisfying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced while on ostensibly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging elements of modern online life without investigating them further. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The pluralized title for the film might give fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it’s more like a polished Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places may also be what keeps it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself is still here, for now.