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“This whole affair reeks like a bad made-for-TV,” observes a cynical podcaster during 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 wrong. On its face, two streaming movies about a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of online influencers before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect about Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be compared to much of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the suspense film that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses traveling alone social media targets, entices them to their doom, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island off 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 mystery, as returning writer-director the director resumes with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to her partner that a person ought to attempt leaving a device-obsessed influencer in a place without any devices and see whether they can make it. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW's offenses, but still faces doubt regarding her recounting of what happened, which includes the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in the part, which seems particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a story of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to chase or evade one another. Then again, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to posh places without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally ingenious about finding stunning locations to visit, although they were presumably more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the film seems to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that lingers even as many scenes involve a handful of actors of people looking at digital devices.

It follows the same logic which allowed the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, big action and special effects can display large spending, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

Every character in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature as much aerial pool video. The characters have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it is satisfying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to hope she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he tapped into the loneliness Madison experienced during ostensibly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob at work will reveal that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it may occasionally seem that he’s nodding at bits of modern online life without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places may also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.