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“Everything about this stinks of a cheap TV movie,” remarks an opportunistic podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. Yet his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, two films on demand about a woman who worms her way into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains how much better it is compared to much of its competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder resumes with 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) catches CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that someone should try leaving a phone-addicted online personality somewhere with no technology and see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her recounting of what happened, including the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images that typically capture CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in the part, which seems especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a story of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase or evade each other. Then again, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales without paying much, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding stunning locations to film, though they were likely less nefarious in their methods. Most of the film appears to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even as numerous sequences consist of a relatively small cast of characters staring at digital devices.

It follows the same logic which allowed the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can show off large spending, but simply offering a travelogue of sorts to viewers also feels deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — including the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant targeting the emptiness of online fame. While it is gratifying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to hope she evades capture, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced while on supposedly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title for the film might give fans of the first movie expectations of an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the film does eventually provide that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.