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“The entire situation stinks of a bad made-for-TV,” states a cynical podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose outlandish story he once said he trusted. Yet his description of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of films on demand chronicling a young woman who worms her way into the worlds of online influencers before killing them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid but network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers remains how much better it is than plenty of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of thriller that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping 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 deaths, and covers up those murders (for a time) by taking control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This lends 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate their one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to her partner that a person ought to attempt leaving a device-obsessed online personality somewhere without any devices to see if they can make it. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion over her version of the events, which includes the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that normally capture CW's interest.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems especially custom-fit for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching outfits.) While 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 tale of dueling investigators, with both women employ fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue and/or escape one another. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating stunning locations to film, though they were likely more legitimate about it. Most of the movie seems to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even as many scenes involve a relatively small cast of people looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, big action and visual effects can display a big budget, however just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals must believably occupy these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed against the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it is satisfying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt while on ostensibly 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 resists caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title for the film could offer devotees of the original hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places may also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.