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“This whole affair reeks of a cheap made-for-TV,” observes a cynical podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an outlandish story he once said he trusted. Yet his description of the events in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of films on demand about a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars before killing them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry but network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is just how superior it is 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.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (for a time) by taking control of their socials. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that a person ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted influencer somewhere with no technology and see if they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion regarding her version of the events, which includes the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically attract CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a tale of rival investigators, with both women both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape each other. Of course, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful in locating stunning locations to visit, though they were presumably more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the film appears to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that lingers even when many scenes involve a relatively small cast of characters looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, big action and visual effects can display a big budget, however simply offering a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems deeply filmic. It’s also especially fitting for a story so rooted in the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature as much aerial pool video. The characters must believably occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed against the vacuousness of the influencer industry. Though it is gratifying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification lets us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is relatively understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced while on ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob at work will reveal that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he resists turning into a caricature the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without investigating them further. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers could offer devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might 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 the world itself is still here, for now.