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“The entire situation smells like a bad made-for-TV,” states a cynical podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an bizarre tale he once said he trusted. But his description of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a woman who worms her way into the worlds of social media stars before killing them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be compared to much of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, entices them to their doom, and covers up those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to her partner that a person should try leaving a phone-addicted influencer in a place with no technology to see whether they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, now exonerated for committing CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion 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 part of a right-wing-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the curated images that typically attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) While the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a tale of dueling investigators, with both women both use fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase and/or escape each other. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore posh places at little cost, an ability that CW echoes with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally ingenious about finding stunning locations to visit, though they were presumably less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the film seems to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that lingers even as many scenes involve a relatively small cast of people staring at digital devices.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, explosive action and special effects can show off a big budget, but just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels deeply filmic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a story so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals must believably occupy these luxurious, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. Though it is satisfying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to wish she evades capture, Harder is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced during ostensibly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob in action will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim by it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem as if he is acknowledging elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development that lacks the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title of Influencers might give devotees of the original hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, for now.