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“This whole affair reeks like a bad TV movie,” states a cynical podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. But his assessment of the events 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 seems like a modern-day version of a lurid yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing about Influencers is how much better it proves to be than plenty of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses traveling alone social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by taking 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 most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early mystery, as returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to Diane that someone should try stranding a phone-addicted online personality in a place with no technology to see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of committing CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt over her recounting of the events, including the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that typically attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in the part, a role that appears particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a tale of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape one another. Then again, perhaps the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to posh places without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful in locating stunning locations to film, although they were likely more legitimate about it. Most of the film seems to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that lingers even as numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise look so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, big action and special effects can show off a big budget, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems deeply filmic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy entry to impossibly chic modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters must believably occupy these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently each person — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nevertheless devotes much time under the light of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it can be satisfying to watch CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced during supposedly dream getaways. Here, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach is that it may occasionally seem as if he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident of the way he brings AI into the story, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it should have. The retitled sequel of Influencers might give devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style escalation, and the film ultimately delivers that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, for now.