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“The entire situation stinks of a bad TV movie,” observes a cynical podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee whose outlandish story he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of the events on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, two films on demand chronicling a woman who worms her way into the lives of social media stars and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers remains just how superior it is compared to much of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, entices them to their doom, and covers up those deaths (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers a degree of mystery, as returning filmmaker the director resumes with the character CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to her partner that someone ought to attempt stranding a device-obsessed influencer in a place without any devices and see if they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the preferential treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her recounting of what happened, including 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 power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically capture CW's interest.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears particularly custom-fit to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a tale of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape one another. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a talent for getting to explore posh places at little cost, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding beautiful places to visit, though they were presumably less nefarious in their methods. Most of the film seems to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that lingers even as numerous sequences consist of a relatively small cast of people looking at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise look so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can display large spending, but simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a story so rooted in the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature this much aerial pool footage. The characters must believably occupy these luxurious, remote places to emphasize the uneasy irony of how often each person — even the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed against the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it is satisfying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is relatively sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the loneliness Madison experienced during ostensibly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is especially true of the way he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. 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 wild final act. But before that, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but reality itself remains present, at least for now.