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“The entire situation smells like a bad made-for-TV,” states a cynical commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an outlandish story he previously said he trusted. Yet his description of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, two streaming movies about a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid but network-approved weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect about Influencers remains just how superior it is than plenty of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning filmmaker the director picks up with the character CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that a person should try leaving a device-obsessed influencer in a place without any devices to see if they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt over her recounting of the events, including the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a conservative-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.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s focus tips heavily toward CW — the original felt more equally divided between the two women — it still functions as a tale of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue or evade each other. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to posh places without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating stunning locations to film, although they were likely less nefarious in their methods. Most of the film appears to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that lingers even when numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of people looking at digital devices.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, big action and visual effects can show off a big budget, but just providing a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels deeply filmic. It’s also especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy online content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy entry to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters have to convincingly occupy these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uneasy irony of how often each person — even the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed against the vacuousness of online fame. While it can be satisfying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to hope she evades capture, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced while on supposedly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of this balanced approach is that it may occasionally seem that he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the plot, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel of Influencers might give fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a polished 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 pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, at least for now.