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“Everything about this smells like a bad TV movie,” remarks a cynical commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee with an outlandish story he once claimed he believed. But his description of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, two streaming movies chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of online influencers and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid but network-approved Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers is how much better it is compared to much of its competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It’s the kind of 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) while she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers a degree of ambiguity, as returning writer-director the director picks up with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and ire.

CW comments to Diane that someone ought to attempt leaving a device-obsessed online personality in a place with no technology to see if they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces doubt over her recounting of what happened, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears especially custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) While the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the original felt more equally divided between the two women — it still functions as a story of rival amateur detectives, with both women both use fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase or evade each other. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to posh places without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding stunning locations to visit, although they were likely less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the movie seems to be shot on location, providing it a real-world weight that remains even when numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of people looking at digital devices.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, big action and special effects can display a big budget, however just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these lush, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a screed against the emptiness of online fame. Though it is gratifying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt while on ostensibly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he resists turning into a caricature the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at bits of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he brings AI into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it should have. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie hope for an Aliens-style escalation, and the film does eventually provide that, with a suitably wild final act. But before that, it’s more like a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. The world might be saturated with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself remains present, for now.