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“Everything about this smells like a cheap TV movie,” observes an opportunistic podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee whose outlandish story he previously said he trusted. Yet his description of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, two films on demand about a young woman who worms her way into the worlds of social media stars before killing them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers is just how superior it proves to be than plenty of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It’s the kind of thriller that should give other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, entices them to their doom, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their socials. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early mystery, as returning filmmaker the director picks up with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to her partner that a person should try stranding a device-obsessed influencer somewhere without any devices and see if they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, but still faces doubt over her recounting of the events, which includes the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that typically attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) Although the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward CW — the original felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of rival amateur detectives, with both women employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape one another. Of course, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally ingenious in locating stunning locations to visit, although they were presumably less nefarious about it. Most of the film seems to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even when numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, explosive action and special effects can display large spending, but simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour 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 entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently each person — including the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it is satisfying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification lets us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is relatively sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt while on ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob in action will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not someone exploited by it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at bits of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title for the film could offer fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a 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 self-serving tourism, but reality itself is still here, for now.