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“This whole affair stinks of a bad TV movie,” remarks an opportunistic podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. Yet his description of the events in the movie isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies about a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of online influencers and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect about Influencers is just how superior it is than plenty of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their online accounts. 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), turns the tables against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that someone ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted online personality somewhere without any devices and see if they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the special treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion over her recounting of the events, which includes the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in the part, which seems particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) While the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a tale of rival investigators, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue or evade one another. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to posh places at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers appear equally ingenious in locating stunning locations to film, although they were presumably less nefarious in their methods. Most of the film seems to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even when many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of characters looking at digital devices.

It follows the same logic that made the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish for decades: Indeed, big action and special effects can show off a big budget, however just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also feels deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle of creating envy-inducing online content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, remote places to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently each person — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the emptiness of online fame. Though it can be gratifying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the loneliness Madison felt while on supposedly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob at work will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film could offer devotees of the original hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the movie does eventually provide that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than an wild-eyed, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places might also be what keeps it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself remains present, for now.