This Horror Sequel <em>Influencers</em> Is Set to Give Competing Streaming Thrillers a Bad Case of FOMO

“This whole affair reeks of a bad TV movie,” states a cynical podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an outlandish story he once claimed he believed. Yet his assessment of the events in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a woman who worms her way into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry but network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is just how superior it proves to be than plenty of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of thriller capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by taking control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning filmmaker the director picks up with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to her partner that someone ought to attempt stranding a device-obsessed influencer in a place without any devices and see if they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the special treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion over her recounting of what happened, which includes the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the curated images that typically capture CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in the part, which seems particularly custom-fit to her strengths. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the follow-up's focus leans heavily into CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a tale of dueling investigators, with both women both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue or evade one another. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Influencers have a talent for getting to explore luxurious locales without paying much, a skill which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding stunning locations to visit, although they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. Most of the film seems to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight that remains even as many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise appear so persistently lavish for decades: Indeed, big action and special effects can show off large spending, however just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels deeply filmic. It’s also especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure 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 entry to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters must believably occupy these luxurious, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — 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, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it can be gratifying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is relatively understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced during ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by it.

The other side of this balanced approach is that it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is especially true regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The pluralized title for the film could offer fans of the first movie expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places may also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. Our society might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, for now.