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“The entire situation stinks like a cheap made-for-TV,” observes an opportunistic podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an outlandish story he once said he trusted. Yet his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, two streaming movies chronicling a woman who worms her way into the lives of social media stars before killing them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers remains how much better it proves to be compared to much of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their doom, and covers up those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning writer-director the director resumes with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to her partner that a person should try stranding a phone-addicted influencer in a place with no technology to see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her recounting of the events, which includes the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a right-wing-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that normally capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears especially tailor-made for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the follow-up's focus leans heavily into CW — the original felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a story of rival investigators, with both women employ fake accounts, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue or evade each other. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore posh places at little cost, a skill which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally ingenious about finding beautiful places to film, though they were likely more legitimate in their methods. Most of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that lingers even as many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, explosive action and special effects can show off large spending, however just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a story so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to impossibly chic modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much aerial pool footage. The characters have to convincingly inhabit these lush, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. Though it is gratifying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is relatively sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he tapped into the loneliness Madison experienced while on supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust 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 grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film might give fans of the first movie hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide that, with an appropriately wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself remains present, at least for now.