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“Everything about this stinks like a bad made-for-TV,” remarks a cynical commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an bizarre tale he once said he trusted. But his description of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, two films on demand about a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of online influencers before killing them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers remains how much better it proves to be compared to much of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller capable of giving its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning writer-director the director picks up with the character CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking their one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to her partner that someone should try leaving a device-obsessed online personality somewhere without any devices and see if they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the special treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion over her version of the events, including the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically attract CW's interest.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in the part, which seems especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) While the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still works as a story of dueling investigators, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade one another. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors with her more overt scheming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally ingenious about finding stunning locations to visit, although they were likely more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the film appears to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight that remains even as numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, big action and visual effects can display large spending, however simply offering a kind of visual tour to viewers also feels inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing online content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — even the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant against the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it can be gratifying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to wish she evades capture, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced during ostensibly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title of Influencers might give fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places may also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, for now.