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“This whole affair reeks like a cheap TV movie,” states an opportunistic commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an outlandish story he once claimed he believed. But his description of the events in the movie isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but network-approved weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be compared to much of its competition, irrespective 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

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their doom, and covers up those deaths (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and ire.

CW remarks to her partner that someone ought to attempt stranding a device-obsessed online personality somewhere without any devices to see whether they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt regarding her version of what happened, including 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), although his preferred medium 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 for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the follow-up's focus leans heavily into CW — the first film felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a tale of dueling amateur detectives, with both women both use fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade each other. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Influencers have a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally ingenious about finding stunning locations to visit, though they were likely more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even when many scenes involve a handful of actors of characters staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, explosive action and special effects can display large spending, however simply offering a kind of visual tour to viewers also feels deeply filmic. It’s also especially fitting for a story so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing digital content.

Every character in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much aerial pool video. These individuals must believably occupy these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how often each person — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the vacuousness of online fame. While it can be satisfying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to hope she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob in action will reveal that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers might give devotees of the original hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it’s more like a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a wild-eyed, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself remains present, for now.