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“The entire situation smells like a cheap made-for-TV,” observes a cynical podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. Yet his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, two films on demand about a woman who worms her way into the worlds of social media stars before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid but network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers is just how superior it is compared to much of its competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their doom, and covers up those murders (for a time) by taking control of their socials. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early mystery, as returning filmmaker the director picks up with the character CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to Diane that a person ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted influencer somewhere with no technology and see whether they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now exonerated for committing CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion over her recounting of what happened, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images that typically capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in the part, a role that appears particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) While the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film felt more equally divided between the two women — it still functions as a tale of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape each other. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Influencers have a knack for gaining access to posh places at little cost, a skill which CW mirrors with her more overt scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful in locating beautiful places to visit, though they were presumably less nefarious about it. Most of the film appears to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that lingers even as many scenes consist of a handful of actors of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can show off large spending, however simply offering a kind of visual tour to viewers also feels deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a story so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters have to convincingly inhabit these lush, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed against the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it can be gratifying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt while on supposedly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim by it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them further. 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 of Influencers could offer devotees of the original hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. But before that, it’s more like a polished Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, for now.