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“Everything about this reeks like a bad TV movie,” remarks an opportunistic podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee with an outlandish story he previously said he trusted. Yet his description of the events in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of streaming movies about a young woman who worms her way into the lives of social media stars and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a lurid but network-approved Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers remains how much better it is than plenty of its competition, regardless of screen size. It is precisely the thriller that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early mystery, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder resumes with the character CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking the couple’s first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to Diane that someone ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted influencer somewhere with no technology and see if they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW’s crimes, but still faces doubt over her version of the events, including the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, which seems especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) While the follow-up's focus leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of rival amateur detectives, with both women employ fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase or evade one another. Then again, perhaps the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for getting to explore luxurious locales without paying much, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers appear equally ingenious about finding beautiful places to visit, though they were likely more legitimate in their methods. Most of the film seems to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even as numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent for decades: Yes, big action and visual effects can display large spending, however just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels deeply filmic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting superficial glamour and desperate hustle involved in producing 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 impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature as much aerial pool footage. The characters must believably inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nevertheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it is gratifying to watch CW manipulate 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 key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt during ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids caricaturing the character further. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without investigating them further. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel of Influencers might give fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, at least for now.