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“The entire situation stinks of a bad TV movie,” remarks a cynical commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. But his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a young woman who worms her way into the worlds of online influencers and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing regarding Influencers is how much better it proves to be than plenty of its competition, regardless of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals 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 latest target, 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 happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that a person should try stranding a phone-addicted online personality in a place with no technology and see if they can make it. Is this an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion over her recounting of what happened, including the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that typically attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, which seems particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a tale of rival investigators, with both women both use fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase or evade each other. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for getting to explore luxurious locales at little cost, an ability that CW echoes with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating beautiful places to film, although they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even as numerous sequences consist of a relatively small cast of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the Bond franchise look so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, big action and special effects can show off a big budget, however just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems deeply filmic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool video. These individuals must believably inhabit these lush, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — including the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the vacuousness of online fame. While it is gratifying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification lets us to hope she evades capture, Harder is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he tapped into the loneliness Madison felt during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will reveal that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he resists turning into a caricature the character. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach is that it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style escalation, and the film does eventually provide that, with an appropriately wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, for now.