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“This whole affair reeks like a bad TV movie,” remarks an opportunistic podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee whose outlandish story he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, two streaming movies about a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of online influencers before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers remains how much better it proves to be compared to much of its competition, irrespective of screen size. It is precisely the thriller that should give other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, entices them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This lends 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, as returning writer-director the director picks up with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW remarks to her partner that a person should try leaving a phone-addicted online personality in a place with no technology and see if they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion over her recounting of what happened, including the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a right-wing-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images that typically capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a story of rival amateur detectives, with both women both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue or evade each other. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Influencers have a talent for getting to explore posh places at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers appear equally ingenious in locating beautiful places to film, although they were presumably more legitimate about it. Most of the movie seems to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even as many scenes consist of a handful of actors of people looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent for decades: Yes, explosive action and visual effects can show off a big budget, but simply offering a travelogue of sorts for the audience also seems deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing digital content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals must believably inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — including the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the vacuousness of online fame. Though it is satisfying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt during ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob at work will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is especially true of the way he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers might give devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the film does eventually provide that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than an wild-eyed, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places might also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, for now.