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“This whole affair smells of a bad made-for-TV,” states an opportunistic commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. But his description of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, a pair of films on demand chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers remains how much better it is than plenty of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give 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 influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their online accounts. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW remarks to her partner that a person ought to attempt stranding a device-obsessed online personality in a place without any devices and see if they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of committing CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt regarding her recounting of what happened, which includes the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally capture CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) Although the follow-up's focus leans heavily into CW — the first film seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a story of dueling investigators, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase or evade one another. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, a skill which CW mirrors with her more overt scheming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating beautiful places to film, though they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the film seems to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even when many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of people looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish for decades: Indeed, big action and visual effects can show off a big budget, however just providing a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems deeply filmic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards that don’t show off this much aerial pool video. These individuals must believably occupy these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how often everyone — including the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed against the vacuousness of the influencer industry. Though it can be satisfying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he tapped into the loneliness Madison felt during supposedly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling false 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 girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of this balanced approach is that it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident regarding how he brings AI into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film might give fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what keeps it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.