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“This whole affair reeks like a bad made-for-TV,” states an opportunistic podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee with an bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. But his assessment of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of online influencers and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry but cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers is how much better it is compared to much of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by taking control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to her partner that a person should try stranding a device-obsessed online personality in a place with no technology to see whether they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of committing CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her version of what happened, including the murder of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, which seems particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the follow-up's focus leans heavily into CW — the original felt more equally divided between the two women — it still functions as a tale of dueling amateur detectives, with both women both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape each other. Then again, perhaps the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales at little cost, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding beautiful places to film, although they were presumably more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the film appears to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even as many scenes involve a relatively small cast of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish over the years: Indeed, big action and special effects can display large spending, however just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing online content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to impossibly chic modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time under the light of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed against the emptiness of online fame. Though it is satisfying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to hope she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced while on ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is particularly evident regarding how he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it should have. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie expectations of an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide exactly that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places may also be what keeps it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself is still here, for now.