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“Everything about this stinks of a cheap made-for-TV,” observes a cynical commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee whose outlandish story he once claimed he believed. Yet his assessment of the events on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of films on demand chronicling a young woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry yet cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers is how much better it proves to be compared to much of its competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited 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 mystery, as returning writer-director the director picks up with the character CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to Diane that a person should try leaving a device-obsessed online personality somewhere with no technology to see if they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW's offenses, but still faces doubt regarding her recounting of the events, including the murder of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, which seems especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a tale of rival investigators, with both women employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape each other. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore posh places without paying much, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding stunning locations to visit, although they were presumably less nefarious about it. Most of the film seems to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that remains even as numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise appear so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, explosive action and special effects can show off a big budget, however simply offering a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a story so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much aerial pool video. The characters have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the vacuousness of online fame. Though it can be gratifying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob in action will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them further. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide exactly that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, for now.