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“This whole affair reeks like a cheap made-for-TV,” states a cynical podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. But his description of the events in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies about a woman who worms her way into the worlds of online influencers and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but network-approved Movie of the Week. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains how much better it is than plenty of its competition, irrespective of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those murders (for a time) 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 on her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to her partner that someone should try stranding a phone-addicted online personality in a place without any devices and see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the preferential treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, now cleared of committing CW's offenses, but still faces doubt over her version of the events, including the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems especially custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still functions as a story of dueling investigators, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue and/or escape each other. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Influencers have a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers appear equally ingenious about finding beautiful places to visit, although they were presumably more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the film seems to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even when many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of characters looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, explosive action and special effects can show off large spending, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

Every character in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy entry to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — including the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the emptiness of online fame. Though it is gratifying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt during ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; 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 may occasionally seem that he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer devotees of the original hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film does eventually provide that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it’s more like a polished Hitchcock thriller than an wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself is still here, at least for now.