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“Everything about this smells of a bad made-for-TV,” observes an opportunistic podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. Yet his description of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of films on demand chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of social media stars before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry but network-approved weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains how much better it is compared to much of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The film 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 some early mystery, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking the couple’s first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that a person should try leaving a device-obsessed influencer in a place without any devices and see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment afforded one 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 exonerated for committing CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt over her recounting of what happened, which includes the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that normally capture CW's interest.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, which seems especially custom-fit for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the follow-up's focus leans heavily into CW — the first film felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a tale of rival investigators, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to chase and/or escape one another. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for getting to explore posh places without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally ingenious about finding beautiful places to visit, though they were likely less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the film appears to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that lingers even when numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, explosive action and visual effects can display large spending, however just providing a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals must believably occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently each person — including the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it can be satisfying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt while on supposedly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach is that it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title of Influencers might give fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. But before that, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. The world might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.