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“Everything about this smells of a bad made-for-TV,” remarks a cynical commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose outlandish story he previously said he trusted. Yet his description of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of films on demand chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers before killing them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers remains how much better it is compared to much of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their doom, and conceals those murders (for a time) by taking control of their socials. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with the character CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and ire.

CW comments to her partner that a person ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted influencer somewhere without any devices and see whether they can make it. Is this an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the special treatment afforded one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now exonerated for committing CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion regarding her recounting of the events, which includes the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a right-wing-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the curated images that typically capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the follow-up's focus leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a story of rival investigators, with both women employ fake accounts, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase and/or escape each other. Then again, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Influencers have a talent for getting to explore luxurious locales at little cost, an ability that CW echoes with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful in locating stunning locations to film, though they were presumably more legitimate about it. Most of the movie seems to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight that remains even as many scenes consist of a handful of actors of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the James Bond movies appear so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, explosive action and special effects can show off a big budget, but just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also feels deeply filmic. It’s also especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing digital content.

Every character in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; there are movies concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters have to convincingly occupy these lush, remote places to emphasize the uneasy irony of how often everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it can be satisfying to see CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced during ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob at work will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them further. This is especially true of the way he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film might give devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the film does eventually provide that, with an appropriately wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. Our society may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.