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“This whole affair stinks of a cheap TV movie,” states an opportunistic commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee whose outlandish story he once said he trusted. But his description of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, a pair of streaming movies about a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers is how much better it is than plenty of its competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early mystery, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with the character CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and ire.

CW comments to her partner that a person ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted influencer somewhere without any devices and see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of committing CW’s crimes, but still faces doubt regarding her recounting of the events, including the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that normally attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) While the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a story of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue or evade one another. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales without paying much, a skill which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating beautiful places to visit, although they were likely less nefarious about it. The vast majority of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that lingers even when numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of characters looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the James Bond movies appear so persistently lavish over the years: Indeed, explosive action and special effects can display large spending, however just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much aerial pool footage. These individuals must believably inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the vacuousness of online fame. Though it can be gratifying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment allows us to hope she evades capture, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced during ostensibly dream getaways. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will reveal that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without investigating them. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the movie does eventually provide that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places might also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, at least for now.