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“The entire situation reeks of a bad made-for-TV,” remarks an opportunistic podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of the events in the movie isn’t wrong. On its face, two streaming movies about a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers and then murders them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but network-approved weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is just how superior it is than plenty of its competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses traveling alone social media targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their online accounts. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to her partner that a person ought to attempt stranding a device-obsessed online personality in a place without any devices to see if they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the preferential treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion over her version of what happened, which includes the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a right-wing-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, which seems particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s focus tips heavily toward CW — the original felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a tale of rival amateur detectives, with both women both use fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase or evade one another. Of course, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding beautiful places to visit, although they were presumably less nefarious in their methods. Most of the film appears to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that lingers even when numerous sequences consist of a relatively small cast of people staring at digital devices.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies appear so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, big action and special effects can show off a big budget, but just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy online content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards that don’t show off as much aerial pool video. These individuals must believably inhabit these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how often everyone — even the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant targeting the vacuousness of online fame. Though it is satisfying to see CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to hope she evades capture, Harder is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt during supposedly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of this balanced approach is that it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than an wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places may also be what prevents it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but reality itself remains present, at least for now.