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“Everything about this smells like a cheap TV movie,” observes an opportunistic commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. But his description of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, two streaming movies about a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a lurid yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is how much better it proves to be compared to much of the competition, regardless of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by taking control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning writer-director the director resumes with the character CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that someone should try stranding a device-obsessed influencer somewhere with no technology to see whether they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the special treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt regarding her recounting of the events, which includes the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally attract CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, which seems especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) While the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a story of rival investigators, with both women employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape one another. Then again, perhaps the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating beautiful places to visit, although they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. Most of the film seems to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that lingers even as many scenes involve a handful of actors of people looking at digital devices.

It follows the same logic which allowed the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent for decades: Yes, big action and visual effects can show off large spending, but just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle of creating envy-inducing online content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much aerial pool footage. The characters have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently each person — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time under the light of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the emptiness of online fame. Though it can be gratifying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he tapped into the loneliness Madison experienced during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is especially true regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers might give fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. But before that, it’s more like a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, at least for now.