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“The entire situation stinks of a cheap TV movie,” states a cynical podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose outlandish story he once said he trusted. Yet his description of the events on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies about a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars before killing them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains just how superior it is than plenty of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and covers up those deaths (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

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

CW remarks to Diane that someone should try leaving a phone-addicted influencer in a place with no technology and see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt over her recounting of the events, including the murder of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in the part, a role that appears particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching outfits.) While the sequel’s focus tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between the two women — it still functions as a tale of dueling investigators, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade one another. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Influencers have a talent for getting to explore luxurious locales without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors with her more overt scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful in locating beautiful places to visit, though they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the film appears to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that lingers even when many scenes involve a handful of actors of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise look so consistently opulent for decades: Yes, explosive action and special effects can show off a big budget, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

Every character visiting Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature as much aerial pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently each person — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it can be satisfying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced while on supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem as if he is acknowledging elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel of Influencers might give devotees of the original hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the film ultimately delivers that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more 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 coming across like pure nightmare fuel. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself is still here, at least for now.