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“The entire situation stinks of a cheap TV movie,” remarks a cynical commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. Yet his description of the events in the movie isn’t wrong. On its face, two films on demand about a woman who worms her way into the worlds of social media stars before killing them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers remains how much better it proves to be compared to much of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their doom, and covers up those deaths (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and ire.

CW remarks to her partner that someone ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted influencer in a place with no technology and see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the special treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt over her version of the events, which includes the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images 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 striking wardrobe.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the original felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still functions as a story of rival investigators, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape each other. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, a skill which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers appear equally ingenious in locating stunning locations to visit, though they were likely less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the film seems to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that remains even when many scenes involve a handful of actors of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, explosive action and special effects can show off large spending, but just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing digital content.

Every character in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently each person — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the emptiness of online fame. While it can be gratifying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the loneliness Madison felt while on supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it may occasionally seem that he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film might give devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style escalation, and the movie does eventually provide exactly that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what keeps 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, at least for now.