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“Everything about this smells of a cheap made-for-TV,” states an opportunistic podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an outlandish story he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, two films on demand about a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains how much better it is than plenty of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It’s the kind of thriller that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (for a time) by seizing control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers a degree of ambiguity, as returning filmmaker the director resumes with the character CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that someone should try leaving a phone-addicted online personality in a place with no technology and see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion regarding her recounting of what happened, which includes the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically attract CW's interest.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) While the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still works as a tale of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and an apparently limitless travel fund to chase or evade one another. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally resourceful in locating beautiful places to film, although they were presumably more legitimate 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 numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise appear so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, explosive action and special effects can display large spending, but simply offering a kind of visual tour to viewers also feels inherently cinematic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating 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 concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much aerial pool video. These individuals must believably inhabit these lush, remote places to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently each person — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed against the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it can be satisfying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment allows us to wish she evades capture, Harder is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the loneliness Madison felt while on 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 avoids caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at bits of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it’s more like a polished Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, for now.