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“The entire situation smells of a bad TV movie,” remarks a cynical podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. Yet his description of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, two films on demand chronicling a woman who worms her way into the worlds of online influencers before killing them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry but network-approved weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect about Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be compared to much of its competition, regardless of screen size. It is precisely the thriller that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (for a time) by seizing control of their online accounts. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This lends 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, as returning writer-director the director resumes with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to her partner that someone ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted influencer in a place with no technology to see if they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the special treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, now cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion regarding her recounting of the events, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the curated images that typically attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears especially tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking wardrobe.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a story of dueling amateur detectives, with both women employ fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue or evade each other. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for getting to explore posh places at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding beautiful places to film, although they were presumably less nefarious in their methods. Most of the film seems to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that lingers even as many scenes involve a relatively small cast of people looking at digital devices.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can show off a big budget, however simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a story so rooted in the coexisting superficial glamour and desperate hustle of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers which don't feature as much aerial pool footage. These individuals must believably inhabit these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uneasy irony of how often each person — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nevertheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it is gratifying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to wish she evades capture, Harder is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt during supposedly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob at work will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. 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 devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the film ultimately delivers that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.