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“This whole affair stinks of a cheap made-for-TV,” remarks an opportunistic commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee whose outlandish story he previously said he trusted. But his description of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, two films on demand chronicling a young woman who worms her way into the worlds of social media stars before killing them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry but network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers remains 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.

Revisiting the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their doom, and covers up those deaths (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early mystery, as returning writer-director the director picks up with the character CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to Diane that a person ought to attempt leaving a device-obsessed influencer somewhere without any devices and see if they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, but still faces doubt regarding her recounting of what happened, including the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that typically capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears especially custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a story of rival investigators, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and an apparently limitless travel fund to chase and/or escape one another. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Influencers have a talent for getting to explore posh places without paying much, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding beautiful places to visit, although they were presumably more legitimate about it. Most of the film seems to be shot on location, providing it a real-world weight that lingers even as numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, big action and special effects can display large spending, but just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems deeply filmic. It’s also especially fitting for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

Every character in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to impossibly chic modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters have to convincingly occupy these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uneasy irony of how often each person — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, the director has not crafted a rant targeting the vacuousness of online fame. While it can be satisfying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment allows us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the loneliness Madison experienced while on supposedly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem as if he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without investigating them further. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers might give devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself remains present, for now.