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“The entire situation reeks like a cheap TV movie,” remarks an opportunistic podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. Yet his description of the events in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of films on demand chronicling a woman who worms her way into the worlds of online influencers and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid but network-approved Movie of the Week. The wild thing regarding Influencers is how much better it is compared to much of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses traveling alone social media targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning filmmaker the director picks up with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking their one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that someone ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted influencer in a place without any devices and see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the special treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, now exonerated for committing CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion regarding her recounting of the events, which includes the killing 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 involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in the part, a role that appears especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She also designed CW's eye-catching outfits.) While the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape each other. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Influencers have a talent for gaining access to posh places at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful in locating stunning locations to visit, although they were likely less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the film seems to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that lingers 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 look so persistently lavish for decades: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can show off a big budget, but just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also feels inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting superficial glamour and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off as much aerial pool video. These individuals must believably occupy these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it can be gratifying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is relatively sympathetic to the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt while on supposedly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob in action will reveal that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it may occasionally seem that he’s nodding at bits of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is especially true of the way he brings AI into the plot, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the film does eventually provide that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than a wild-eyed, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places might also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself remains present, for now.