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“Everything about this reeks like a cheap TV movie,” states an opportunistic commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee with an outlandish story he previously claimed he believed. But his assessment of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of social media stars and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid yet network-approved weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be compared to much of its competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder resumes with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and ire.

CW remarks to her partner that a person ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted influencer in a place with no technology to see whether they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt over her version of the events, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems especially tailor-made for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) While the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the original felt more equally divided between the two women — it still functions as a tale of dueling investigators, with both women employ fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape each other. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for getting to explore luxurious locales without paying much, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating stunning locations to visit, though they were presumably less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that lingers even as many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of characters staring at digital devices.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can display a big budget, however just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a story so rooted in the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing online content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off as much aerial pool video. These individuals must believably inhabit these lush, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the vacuousness of the influencer industry. Though it can be satisfying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification lets us to hope she evades capture, Harder is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced while on supposedly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he resists turning into a caricature the character further. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim by it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without investigating them. This is especially true of the way he brings AI into the plot, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title for the film might give fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places might also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, for now.