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“This whole affair stinks like a cheap made-for-TV,” states an opportunistic commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an 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 worms her way into the lives of social media stars and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers is how much better it is than plenty of its competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller that should give other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those murders (for a time) by taking control of their socials. 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), reverses their roles on her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder resumes with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that someone should try stranding a phone-addicted online personality somewhere without any devices to see if they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt regarding her version of the events, including the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that normally capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still functions as a story of rival investigators, with both women both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue or evade one another. Then again, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to posh places without paying much, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating beautiful places to visit, though they were presumably more legitimate about it. Most of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even as 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 appear so persistently lavish over the years: Indeed, big action and visual effects can show off a big budget, but simply offering a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing digital content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off as much aerial pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how often each person — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the emptiness of online fame. While it is gratifying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced while on ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, 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 further. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without investigating them further. This is especially true regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title of Influencers could offer devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places might also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, at least for now.