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“Everything about this smells of a cheap TV movie,” remarks a cynical podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. Yet his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, two films on demand chronicling a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains how much better it is than plenty of its competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, entices them to their doom, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder resumes with the character CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and ire.

CW remarks to her partner that a person should try leaving a phone-addicted online personality somewhere without any devices to see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment afforded one clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of committing CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion regarding her recounting of the events, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a right-wing-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically capture CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) Although the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a tale of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape each other. Then again, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, a skill that CW echoes with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding stunning locations to film, though they were presumably less nefarious about it. Most of the film seems to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that lingers 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 Bond franchise appear so persistently lavish for decades: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can display large spending, but simply offering a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters must believably inhabit these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant against the emptiness of online fame. Though it can be gratifying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to hope she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt during ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids turning into a caricature the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach is that it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without investigating them. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the story, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale 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 an wild-eyed, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, at least for now.