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“This whole affair stinks like a cheap made-for-TV,” observes an opportunistic commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee with an outlandish story he once claimed he believed. Yet his description of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, two films on demand about a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of social media stars before killing them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry but cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers remains how much better it proves to be compared to much of its competition, irrespective of where you watch it. 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

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses traveling alone social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (for a time) by taking control of their socials. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking their one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that someone should try stranding a phone-addicted influencer in a place without any devices and see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion over her version of what happened, which includes the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a right-wing-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically capture CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears especially tailor-made for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a story of dueling investigators, with both women employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade each other. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales at little cost, an ability that CW echoes with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating beautiful places to visit, though they were likely more legitimate about it. Most of the film seems to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even when numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of characters staring at digital devices.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies appear so persistently lavish over the years: Indeed, big action and special effects can display large spending, however simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. It’s also especially fitting for a story so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers which don't feature as much aerial pool video. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these lush, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nevertheless devotes much time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the vacuousness of online fame. While it can be satisfying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to wish she evades capture, Harder is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach is that it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the story, an intriguing development that lacks the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers might give devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style escalation, and the movie does eventually provide exactly that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.