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“Everything about this reeks like a cheap TV movie,” remarks a cynical commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, his tone is manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee with an outlandish story he previously said he trusted. Yet his assessment of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, two films on demand about a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of social media stars and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers is how much better it is than plenty of its competition, regardless of screen size. It is precisely the thriller that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their online accounts. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early mystery, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder resumes with the character CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and ire.

CW comments to her partner that someone ought to attempt stranding a device-obsessed influencer somewhere without any devices and see if they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the special treatment afforded one clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt regarding her recounting of what happened, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to juice his career as part of a right-wing-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in the part, which seems especially tailor-made for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a story of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape one another. Then again, perhaps the vast resources isn’t necessary. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales at little cost, a skill which CW mirrors with her more overt scheming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding stunning locations to film, although they were likely less nefarious about it. Most of the film appears to be shot on location, providing it a real-world weight that remains 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 over the years: Yes, big action and special effects can display large spending, however just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a story so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers which don't feature as much aerial pool video. These individuals must believably occupy these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time under the light of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it is gratifying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the loneliness Madison felt during supposedly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob at work will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is especially true regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the film does eventually provide that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what keeps it from seeming like utter horror. The world might be saturated with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself remains present, at least for now.