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“The entire situation smells of a bad made-for-TV,” states an opportunistic commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. Yet his description of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, a pair of streaming movies about a young woman who worms her way into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid but network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is just how superior it proves to be compared to much of its competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals 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, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that a person ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted influencer somewhere with no technology and see if they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the special treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now exonerated for committing CW's offenses, but still faces doubt regarding her recounting of what happened, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a right-wing-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in the part, which seems especially custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) While the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a story of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape one another. Of course, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore posh places without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors with her more overt scheming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding beautiful places to visit, though they were likely less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the film appears to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight that remains even when many scenes involve a relatively small cast of people staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, explosive action and special effects can show off a big budget, however just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also feels deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much aerial pool video. These individuals must believably inhabit these lush, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how often everyone — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it can be gratifying to watch 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 key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt while on supposedly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will reveal that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach is that it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie hope for an Aliens-style escalation, and the movie does eventually provide that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it’s more like a polished Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from seeming like utter horror. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, for now.