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“The entire situation smells of a cheap TV movie,” observes an opportunistic commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee whose outlandish story he previously claimed he believed. Yet his assessment of what’s happening in the movie isn’t wrong. On its face, a pair of streaming movies about a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers before killing them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid but cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be compared to much of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, entices them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by seizing 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), turns the tables against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers a degree of mystery, as returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with the character CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that a person ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted online personality in a place without any devices to see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt over her recounting of what happened, including the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to juice his career as half of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically capture CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in the part, which seems particularly custom-fit to her strengths. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still works as a story of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue or evade one another. Then again, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore posh places without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally resourceful in locating stunning locations to visit, although they were presumably less nefarious in their methods. Most of the film seems to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight that lingers even as numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of people looking at digital devices.

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 show off a big budget, but just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also feels inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a story so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature this much aerial pool footage. These individuals must believably occupy these lush, remote places to emphasize the uneasy irony of how often each person — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed against the emptiness of online fame. Though it is gratifying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt during supposedly dream getaways. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will reveal that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it should have. The retitled sequel for the film could offer devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than an wild-eyed, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what keeps it from seeming like utter horror. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, for now.