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“This whole affair smells like a bad made-for-TV,” states a cynical commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. But his assessment of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. Superficially, two films on demand about a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is how much better it is compared to much of its competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This lends 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, as returning writer-director the director resumes with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that a person should try stranding a phone-addicted online personality somewhere without any devices and see if they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment afforded one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now cleared of committing CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt regarding her version of what happened, which includes the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally capture CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in her role, which seems especially custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a story of dueling investigators, with both women both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade each other. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, a skill which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating stunning locations to film, although they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the movie appears to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight that lingers even when numerous sequences consist of a relatively small cast of characters staring at digital devices.

It follows the same logic which allowed the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, big action and visual effects can display a big budget, however just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels 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 jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters must believably inhabit these lush, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how often everyone — including the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed against the emptiness of online fame. Though it can be satisfying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to hope she evades capture, Harder is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt while on supposedly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The other side of this balanced approach is that it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without investigating them. This is particularly evident regarding how he brings AI into the plot, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title of Influencers might give fans of the first movie expectations of an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what keeps it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, at least for now.