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“Everything about this reeks like a cheap made-for-TV,” states an opportunistic commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an bizarre tale he once said he trusted. But his description of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, two films on demand about a young woman who worms her way into the lives of social media stars before killing them feels like a modern-day version of a lurid yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is just how superior it proves to be than plenty of its competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) by taking control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers a degree of mystery, as returning writer-director the director resumes with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to her partner that someone should try stranding a phone-addicted online personality in a place with no technology to see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt over her version of what happened, which includes the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to juice his career as part of a right-wing-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in her role, which seems particularly custom-fit to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) While the follow-up's focus leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a tale of dueling investigators, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade 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 which CW mirrors with her more overt scheming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally ingenious about finding stunning locations to film, although they were likely less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the movie appears to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even when numerous sequences consist of a relatively small cast of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle that made the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can show off large spending, however simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. It’s also especially fitting for a story so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating envy-inducing digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much aerial pool video. The characters have to convincingly occupy these lush, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed against the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it is satisfying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is relatively understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The other side of this balanced approach is that it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without deeply exploring them further. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development that lacks the psychosexual kick it should have. The pluralized title for the film might give devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than a frenzied, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places might also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. Our society might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, for now.