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“Everything about this reeks like a cheap made-for-TV,” states an opportunistic commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee with an bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of what’s happening in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, two streaming movies chronicling a woman who worms her way into the lives of social media stars and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers is how much better it is than plenty of its competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It’s the kind of thriller that should give other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early mystery, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that a person should try leaving a device-obsessed influencer somewhere without any devices and see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment afforded one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, ultimately revealing 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 Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears especially custom-fit for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) While the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a story of rival amateur detectives, with both women employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase or evade each other. Of course, perhaps the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to posh places at little cost, a skill which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally ingenious in locating beautiful places to visit, although they were presumably less nefarious about it. The vast majority of the movie appears to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight that lingers even when numerous sequences involve a relatively small cast of people staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, explosive action and special effects can show off a big budget, but simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to impossibly chic modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters must believably inhabit these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed against the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it is satisfying to see CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced during ostensibly dream getaways. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The other side of this balanced approach is that it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without investigating them. This is particularly evident regarding how he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel of Influencers might give fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, for now.