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“Everything about this reeks like a cheap made-for-TV,” states an opportunistic podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an outlandish story he previously said he trusted. Yet his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, two films on demand chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers is how much better it proves to be compared to much of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller that should give other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their doom, and covers up those deaths (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that a person should try stranding a device-obsessed online personality in a place with no technology to see if they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of committing CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion over her version of the events, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that normally attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking wardrobe.) While the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the original felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a tale of rival investigators, with both women employ fake accounts, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase and/or escape each other. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Influencers have a talent for getting to explore luxurious locales without paying much, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding beautiful places to film, though they were likely less nefarious about it. Most of the film seems to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that lingers even when many scenes consist of a handful of actors of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies appear so persistently lavish for decades: Indeed, big action and special effects can show off large spending, however just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also feels inherently cinematic. It’s also especially fitting for a narrative so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much aerial pool footage. These individuals must believably occupy these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently each person — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it can be satisfying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt while on supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at bits of modern online life without investigating them. This is especially true regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title for the film might give devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a wild-eyed, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. Our society might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, at least for now.