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“Everything about this stinks of a cheap made-for-TV,” observes an opportunistic podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. But his assessment of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of films on demand about a young 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 cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers is just how superior it proves to be compared to much of its competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses traveling alone social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) by taking control of their socials. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

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

CW remarks to her partner that a person ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted online personality somewhere without any devices to see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the preferential treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion over her version of the events, which includes the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to juice his career as half of a right-wing-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images that normally capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) Although the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a story of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue or evade each other. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales at little cost, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding beautiful places to visit, although they were presumably more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that lingers even when numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of people staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish over the years: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can display large spending, but simply offering a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy entry to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals must believably inhabit these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — including the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the emptiness of online fame. While it is satisfying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification lets us to hope she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt during ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach is that it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at bits of modern online life without investigating them further. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title for the film might give devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.