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“Everything about this reeks like a bad TV movie,” observes an opportunistic commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, 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 wrong. Superficially, two films on demand chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains how much better it is than plenty of its competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early mystery, when returning writer-director the director picks up with CW contentedly residing 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 eye and anger.

CW comments to her partner that a person should try stranding a phone-addicted influencer in a place with no technology and see whether they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of committing CW's offenses, but still faces doubt over her recounting of the events, including the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images that typically capture CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in the part, a role that appears particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) While the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a tale of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to chase and/or escape one another. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales at little cost, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally ingenious in locating beautiful places to visit, although they were presumably less nefarious about it. The vast majority of the film appears to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even when many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish over the years: Indeed, explosive action and special effects can display large spending, but simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels deeply filmic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy online content.

Every character visiting Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit 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 spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a rant against the emptiness of online fame. Though it is gratifying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to hope she evades capture, Harder is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt while on ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem that he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is especially true regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel for the film could offer fans of the first movie expectations of an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide exactly that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. But before that, it’s more like a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than a frenzied, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places might also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. Our society might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, for now.