The Horror Follow-Up <em>Influencers</em> Is Set to Give Competing Streaming Suspense Films a Bad Case of FOMO

“The entire situation smells like a cheap made-for-TV,” states a cynical podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is 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. Superficially, two streaming movies chronicling a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of social media stars before killing them feels like a modern-day version of a lurid but network-approved weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers remains how much better it proves to be compared to much of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It is precisely the thriller that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning writer-director the director resumes with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to Diane that a person ought to attempt stranding a device-obsessed online personality in a place without any devices to see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the special treatment given to a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion regarding her version of what happened, which includes the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to juice his career as part of a right-wing-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that normally capture CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of rival amateur detectives, with both women both use fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue and/or escape each other. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for getting to explore posh places without paying much, an ability that CW echoes with her more overt scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding beautiful places to visit, although they were likely more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the film seems to be shot on location, providing it a real-world weight that remains even as many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, explosive action and special effects can show off a big budget, but simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting superficial glamour and desperate hustle of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals must believably inhabit these lush, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — even the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant targeting the emptiness of the influencer industry. While it is satisfying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to hope she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt during supposedly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at bits of modern online life without investigating them. This is particularly evident regarding how he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development that lacks the psychosexual kick it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers might give devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. But before that, it’s more like a polished Hitchcock thriller than an wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what prevents it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, for now.