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“Everything about this reeks like a cheap made-for-TV,” remarks a cynical podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an outlandish story he previously said he trusted. But his description of the events on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, two streaming movies about a woman who worms her way into the worlds of social media stars before killing them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry yet cable-ready weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect about Influencers is just how superior it proves to be compared to much of its competition, irrespective 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

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The film concludes (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 against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning filmmaker the director picks up with 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 eye and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that a person ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted influencer in a place without any devices and see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the special treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, now exonerated for committing CW's offenses, but still faces doubt regarding her version of the events, including the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) Although the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a tale of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape each other. Of course, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to posh places without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating stunning locations to visit, although they were likely less nefarious about it. Most of the movie appears to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even as numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, big action and visual effects can show off large spending, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a story so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

Every character in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters must believably inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. Though it can be satisfying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt during ostensibly dream getaways. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not someone exploited by it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at bits of modern online life without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development that lacks the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title for the film could offer devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style escalation, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from seeming like utter horror. Our society may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, for now.