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

“This whole affair stinks like a cheap TV movie,” states an opportunistic commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee with an outlandish story he previously claimed he believed. Yet his description of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, two films on demand about a woman who worms her way into the worlds of online influencers before killing them feels like a modern-day version of a lurid yet cable-ready weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect about Influencers is just how superior it proves to be compared to much of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of thriller that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The movie leaves off (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 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to Diane that someone should try leaving a phone-addicted influencer in a place with no technology and see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment afforded one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters 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 juice his career as part of a right-wing-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images that normally capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a tale of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue and/or escape each other. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for getting to explore luxurious locales at little cost, an ability that CW echoes with her more overt scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating beautiful places to visit, though they were likely more legitimate about it. Most of the film seems to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that lingers even as numerous sequences consist of a relatively small cast of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, explosive action and visual effects can show off large spending, but just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems deeply filmic. It’s also especially fitting for a story so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

Every character in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature as much aerial pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nevertheless 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 vacuousness of the influencer industry. Though it is gratifying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to hope she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he tapped into the loneliness Madison experienced while on supposedly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at bits 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 that lacks the psychological edge it should have. The retitled sequel of Influencers might give devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations might also be what keeps it from seeming like utter horror. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, for now.