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“The entire situation reeks of a cheap TV movie,” remarks a cynical commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. But his description of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies about a woman who worms her way into the lives of social media stars and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers is just how superior it is than plenty of the competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses traveling alone social media targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning filmmaker the director resumes with the character CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to her partner that someone should try leaving a phone-addicted online personality somewhere without any devices and see whether they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the special treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now cleared of committing CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion over her version of what happened, which includes the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a right-wing-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that normally attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears especially custom-fit for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward CW — the first film seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a story of dueling amateur detectives, with both women both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape one another. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to posh places without paying much, an ability that CW echoes with her more overt scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding stunning locations to visit, though they were presumably more legitimate about it. 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 handful of actors of people looking at digital devices.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, big action and visual effects can display large spending, but just providing a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and desperate hustle involved in producing 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 footage. The characters have to convincingly inhabit these lush, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — even the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it is gratifying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; 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 collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of this balanced approach is that it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident regarding how he brings AI into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel for the film could offer fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from seeming like utter horror. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself remains present, for now.