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“The entire situation stinks of a cheap TV movie,” observes an opportunistic commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose outlandish story he once claimed he believed. Yet his description of the events on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies about a young woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is just how superior it proves to be than plenty of its competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses traveling alone social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (at least temporarily) by taking control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers a degree of ambiguity, as returning writer-director the director picks up with the character CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and ire.

CW remarks to her partner that someone should try leaving a device-obsessed influencer somewhere without any devices to see if they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt over her version 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 half of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that typically attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears especially tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) While the follow-up's focus leans heavily into CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape each other. Of course, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to posh places without paying much, a skill that CW echoes with her more overt scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally ingenious in locating stunning locations to film, though they were presumably less nefarious about it. Most of the film appears to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that remains even when many scenes involve a handful of actors of people staring at digital devices.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, big action and visual effects can display large spending, however just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. It’s also especially fitting for a story so rooted in the coexisting surface-level allure and desperate hustle of creating envy-inducing digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters must believably inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — including the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the vacuousness of online fame. Though it can be gratifying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt while on ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists turning into a caricature the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, 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 may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is especially true regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film might give fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, for now.