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“Everything about this reeks of a cheap TV movie,” states a cynical podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. Yet his description of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of films on demand chronicling a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers is just how superior it proves to be compared to much 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 First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers a degree of ambiguity, as returning filmmaker the director resumes with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking the couple’s first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that someone ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted influencer in a place with no technology to see whether they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion over her recounting of what happened, including the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that normally capture CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) While the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of dueling investigators, with both women employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape each other. Then again, perhaps the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to posh places at little cost, a skill which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating beautiful places to visit, although they were presumably less nefarious about it. Most of the movie seems to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even as numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of people staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, big action and visual effects can show off a big budget, however just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters must believably occupy these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how often everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it can be gratifying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to hope she evades capture, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced while on ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not someone exploited by it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the plot, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title for the film could offer fans of the first movie hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the film does eventually provide that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it’s more like a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. 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.