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“The entire situation stinks of a bad made-for-TV,” states an opportunistic commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an outlandish story he previously said he trusted. Yet his description of what’s happening in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, two streaming movies chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers before killing them feels like a modern-day version of a lurid but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains how much better it is than plenty of its competition, regardless of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. 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), turns the tables against her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers some early mystery, when 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 their one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that a person should try stranding a device-obsessed influencer somewhere with no technology and see if they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the special treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of committing CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt regarding her version of the events, including the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images that typically capture CW's interest.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears especially tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching outfits.) While the sequel’s focus tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between the two women — it still functions as a tale of rival amateur detectives, with both women both use fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade each other. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to posh places at little cost, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally resourceful in locating stunning locations to visit, though they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the movie appears to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even as many scenes consist of a handful of actors of people staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent for decades: Yes, explosive action and special effects can display a big budget, however just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also feels inherently cinematic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature as much aerial pool footage. These individuals must believably inhabit these luxurious, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently each person — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it can be satisfying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to hope she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced during ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists turning into a caricature the character further. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it may occasionally seem that he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it’s more like a polished Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places may also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, for now.