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“Everything about this smells of a cheap made-for-TV,” remarks a cynical podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of the events in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of films on demand about a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but cable-ready weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains how much better it is than plenty of its competition, regardless of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by taking control of their socials. The movie concludes (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 provides 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that someone should try stranding a device-obsessed influencer somewhere with no technology and see if they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment afforded one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now cleared of committing CW's offenses, but still faces doubt over her version of what happened, including the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a story of rival investigators, with both women employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase or evade one another. Then again, perhaps the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to posh places at little cost, a skill which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding beautiful places to visit, although they were presumably less nefarious in their methods. Most of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even when numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of characters looking at digital devices.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies appear so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, big action and special effects can show off large spending, however just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also feels inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to impossibly chic modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards that don’t show off this much aerial pool video. The characters must believably inhabit these lush, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. Though it can be satisfying to see CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to wish she evades capture, Harder is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced during ostensibly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them further. This is especially true regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers could offer devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, 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, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.