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“This whole affair stinks of a cheap TV movie,” states a cynical commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an bizarre tale he once said he trusted. But his description of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of films on demand chronicling a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of online influencers and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry but network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be compared to much of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their doom, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, as returning filmmaker the director resumes 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) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that a person ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted online personality in a place with no technology and see if they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her version of what happened, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that normally attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in the part, which seems especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the first film felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a tale of dueling investigators, with both women both use fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue and/or escape one another. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales at little cost, a skill that CW echoes with her more overt scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating beautiful places to visit, although they were presumably less nefarious about it. Most of the film appears to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that lingers even as many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, big action and visual effects can show off large spending, but simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a narrative so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing online content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards that don’t show off this much aerial pool footage. These individuals must believably inhabit these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently each person — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nevertheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed against the vacuousness of the influencer industry. Though it can be gratifying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to hope she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is relatively sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt while on supposedly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character. He even gives 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 flip side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The pluralized title for the film might give fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.