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“Everything about this reeks of a cheap TV movie,” states a cynical podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. But his assessment of the events in the movie isn’t wrong. On its face, two films on demand about a young 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 cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers is just how superior it is compared to much of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This lends 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning filmmaker the director resumes with 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 should try stranding a phone-addicted influencer in a place with no technology to see whether they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment given to a single 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, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her recounting of what happened, including the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a right-wing-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the curated images that typically attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears especially tailor-made for her talents. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) While the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a tale of rival investigators, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase or evade each other. Then again, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to posh places without paying much, an ability that CW echoes with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating beautiful places to visit, though they were presumably more legitimate about it. Most of the film appears to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that lingers even when numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies appear so persistently lavish for decades: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can show off large spending, but just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to impossibly chic modern bungalows; there are movies concerning beach rescuers which don't feature as much aerial pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how often each person — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it is gratifying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification allows us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is relatively sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt during ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he resists turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The other side of this balanced approach is that it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without investigating them. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers might give devotees of the original hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the movie does eventually provide that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations might also be what keeps it from seeming like utter horror. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.