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“The entire situation reeks like a bad made-for-TV,” states a cynical podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. Yet his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of films on demand about a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers is how much better it proves to be compared to much 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 tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by seizing 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 against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning writer-director the director picks up with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that someone should try stranding a phone-addicted online personality in a place with no technology to see whether they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the preferential treatment afforded one clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion over her recounting of the events, including the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears especially custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s focus tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a story of dueling amateur detectives, with both women employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape each other. Of course, perhaps the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for getting to explore luxurious locales without paying much, a skill which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers appear equally ingenious about finding stunning locations to visit, although they were likely less nefarious about it. Most of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even when numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the James Bond movies appear so persistently lavish over the years: Indeed, explosive action and visual 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 narrative so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing online content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off this much aerial pool video. The characters have to convincingly occupy these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it can be gratifying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to hope she evades capture, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt during ostensibly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at bits of modern online life without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development that lacks the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the film does eventually provide that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places might also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. The world might be saturated with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.