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“The entire situation smells of a bad TV movie,” remarks a cynical podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an outlandish story he previously said he trusted. Yet his assessment of the events on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, two streaming movies chronicling a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers before killing them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers remains how much better it is than plenty of its competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their socials. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning filmmaker the director resumes with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to her partner that a person ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted online personality somewhere without any devices to see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now exonerated for committing CW’s crimes, but still faces doubt regarding her recounting of the events, including the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to juice his career as half of a right-wing-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in the part, which seems particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) Although the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward CW — the first film seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of rival investigators, with both women employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape one another. Of course, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Influencers have a knack for gaining access to posh places without paying much, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally ingenious about finding stunning locations to visit, though they were presumably less nefarious about it. The vast majority of the film seems to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even as many scenes involve a relatively small cast of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise appear so persistently lavish for decades: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can display a big budget, but simply offering a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels deeply filmic. It’s also especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

Every character in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, remote places to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the emptiness of online fame. Though it can be satisfying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt while on ostensibly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it may occasionally seem as if he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title of Influencers might give fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from seeming like utter horror. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, at least for now.