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“This whole affair smells like a bad made-for-TV,” observes an opportunistic commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, two streaming movies about a woman who worms her way into the worlds of online influencers and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid but cable-ready weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is how much better it proves to be compared to much of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the suspense film that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that someone ought to attempt leaving a device-obsessed online personality somewhere without any devices to see whether they can survive. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion over her version of the events, including the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a right-wing-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that typically capture CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears especially custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) Although the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a story of dueling amateur detectives, with both women both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue and/or escape one another. Then again, perhaps the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, a skill which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating stunning locations to film, although they were presumably less nefarious in their methods. Most of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even as numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of people staring at digital devices.

It follows the same logic that made the Bond franchise look so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, big action and special effects can show off a big budget, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters must believably occupy these lush, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time under the light of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it is gratifying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment allows us to hope she evades capture, Harder is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt while on supposedly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he resists turning into a caricature the character. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by 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 investigating them further. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development that lacks the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title for the film might give devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it’s more like a polished Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places might also be what keeps it from seeming like utter horror. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.