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“The entire situation reeks of a bad made-for-TV,” observes an opportunistic podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose outlandish story he once said he trusted. But his description of the events in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, two streaming movies about a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers remains how much better it proves to be than plenty of its competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their doom, and covers up those deaths (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers some early mystery, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to her partner that someone ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted influencer in a place with no technology and see if they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now exonerated for committing CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt regarding her version of the events, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a right-wing-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a tale of dueling investigators, with both women employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase and/or escape one another. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales at little cost, a skill which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating stunning locations to film, although they were likely less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the movie seems to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even as numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, explosive action and special effects can show off a big budget, but just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a story so rooted in the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how often everyone — including the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it can be satisfying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to wish she evades capture, Harder is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he tapped into the loneliness Madison felt while on supposedly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is especially true regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development that lacks the psychosexual kick it deserves. The pluralized title for the film could offer devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the movie does eventually provide that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. But before that, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. The world might be saturated with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, for now.