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“This whole affair reeks of a bad made-for-TV,” remarks an opportunistic commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an outlandish story he previously claimed he believed. But his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of films on demand chronicling a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of online influencers and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet cable-ready weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is just how superior it proves to be compared to much of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) by taking control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers a degree of ambiguity, as returning filmmaker the director picks up with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking their one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that someone should try leaving a phone-addicted influencer in a place without any devices to see whether they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment afforded one clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of committing CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion regarding her version of the events, which includes the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to juice his career as half of a right-wing-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that normally capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still works as a tale of rival investigators, with both women both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to chase or evade each other. Of course, perhaps the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a knack 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 beautiful places to film, although they were likely more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the film appears to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that lingers even when numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of people looking at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, big action and special effects can display large spending, but just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also feels inherently cinematic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, similar to 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 this much aerial pool video. These individuals must believably occupy these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uneasy irony of how often each person — even the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time under the light of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it is satisfying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the loneliness Madison experienced while on ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids caricaturing the character further. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is especially true of the way he brings AI into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers might give fans of the first movie expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than an wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. The world might be saturated with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.