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“Everything about this stinks of a cheap TV movie,” remarks a cynical podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. Yet his description of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of films on demand about a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of online influencers and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be than plenty of the competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, as returning filmmaker the director resumes with the character CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to her partner that someone ought to attempt leaving a device-obsessed online personality in a place without any devices and see if they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment afforded one clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her recounting of what happened, which includes the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears particularly custom-fit to her strengths. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original felt more equally divided between the two women — it still functions as a story of dueling investigators, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape one another. Of course, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for getting to explore posh places at little cost, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally ingenious in locating beautiful places to film, though they were presumably more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the movie appears to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight that remains even as numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, big action and visual effects can show off a big budget, however just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle of creating jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters must believably inhabit these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how often everyone — including the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, the director has not crafted a rant against the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it is satisfying to see CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment allows us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced while on supposedly dream getaways. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists turning into a caricature the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach is that it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without investigating them further. This is especially true regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychological edge it should have. The retitled sequel for the film could offer devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the movie does eventually provide that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places may also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, at least for now.