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“This whole affair stinks like a bad made-for-TV,” observes a cynical commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a woman who worms her way into the worlds of online influencers and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers is how much better it proves to be compared to much of the competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, when 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 first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that a person should try stranding a device-obsessed online personality somewhere with no technology to see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion regarding her version of what happened, including the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a right-wing-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.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in the part, which seems particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) While the follow-up's focus leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a story of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape each other. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales at little cost, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding beautiful places to visit, although they were likely more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the film appears to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that lingers even as numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise look so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, big action and visual effects can display large spending, however just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a story so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and desperate hustle of creating envy-inducing digital content.

Every character in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy entry to impossibly chic modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature this much aerial pool video. These individuals must believably inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently each person — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a rant against the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it is 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 somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt during ostensibly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at bits of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than a frenzied, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. Our society may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.