The Horror Follow-Up <em>Influencers</em> Could Give Other Streaming Thrillers Serious FOMO

“This whole affair smells like a cheap TV movie,” states a cynical podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. Yet his description of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is how much better it is than plenty of the competition, regardless of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (for a time) by taking control of their socials. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that a person should try stranding a device-obsessed online personality in a place without any devices to see if they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces doubt regarding her recounting of the events, which includes the murder of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the curated images that typically attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) While the sequel’s focus tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a story of dueling amateur detectives, with both women both use fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape each other. Of course, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to posh places at little cost, a skill that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating stunning locations to film, although they were likely less nefarious about it. Most of the movie seems to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even as numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of characters staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, big action and special effects can show off 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 of creating envy-inducing digital content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature this much aerial pool video. The characters must believably occupy these lush, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently each person — even the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it can be satisfying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced while on ostensibly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film could offer fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.