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“This whole affair reeks of a bad TV movie,” remarks an opportunistic commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose outlandish story he previously said he trusted. Yet his assessment of the events on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, a pair of films on demand about a woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet cable-ready weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect about Influencers remains just how superior it is compared to much of its competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early mystery, when returning filmmaker the director picks up with the character CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to her partner that someone should try leaving a device-obsessed online personality somewhere with no technology and see if they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment afforded one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now exonerated for committing CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion regarding her version of the events, which includes the murder of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that normally attract CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking wardrobe.) While the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the original felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a tale of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue or evade one another. Then again, perhaps the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for gaining access to posh places without paying much, a skill that CW echoes with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally ingenious about finding beautiful places to film, though they were presumably more legitimate about it. Most of the film seems to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that lingers even as many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of characters looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish over the years: Indeed, big action and special effects can show off a big budget, but simply offering a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels deeply filmic. It’s also especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature this much aerial pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these lush, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time under the light of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. Though it is gratifying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the loneliness Madison felt while on ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he resists turning into a caricature the character further. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging elements of modern online life without investigating them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development that lacks the psychosexual kick it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. Our society might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but reality itself remains present, at least for now.