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“Everything about this stinks like a bad made-for-TV,” remarks an opportunistic podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose outlandish story he once said he trusted. But his description of the events on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a young woman who worms her way into the lives of social media stars before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers is just how superior it is compared to much of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and covers up those murders (for a time) by seizing control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early mystery, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking their one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and ire.

CW comments to her partner that a person should try stranding a phone-addicted online personality in a place without any devices to see whether they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her recounting of the events, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) Although the follow-up's focus leans heavily into CW — the first film felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a tale of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue and/or escape one another. Of course, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, a skill which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating beautiful places to visit, although they were likely more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the film seems to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even as many scenes consist of a handful of actors of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise appear so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, big action and visual effects can display large spending, but simply offering a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. It’s also especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle of creating envy-inducing digital content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much aerial pool video. The characters must believably inhabit these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently each person — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the emptiness of online fame. Though it can be gratifying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is relatively sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt during ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids turning into a caricature the character. He even grants 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 other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it may occasionally seem that he’s nodding at bits 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 psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film could offer fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what keeps it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, for now.