The Horror Follow-Up <em>Influencers</em> Will Give Competing Streaming Thrillers Serious FOMO

“This whole affair smells like a cheap TV movie,” observes an opportunistic commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he once said he trusted. Yet his assessment 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 and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The wild thing regarding Influencers is how much better it proves to be than plenty of its competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and covers up those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning writer-director the director resumes with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate their one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and ire.

CW remarks to Diane that someone ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted influencer somewhere without any devices and see if they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, now exonerated for committing CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion regarding her recounting of what happened, including the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally capture CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, which seems especially custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) Although the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a tale of dueling investigators, with both women employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase or evade one another. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors with her more overt scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally resourceful about finding beautiful places to visit, although they were presumably more legitimate about it. Most of the film seems to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that lingers even when numerous sequences involve 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 consistently opulent for decades: Yes, big action and special effects can display large spending, however simply offering a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature as much aerial pool video. The characters have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — including the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the vacuousness of online fame. Though it is gratifying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced during supposedly 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 avoids turning into a caricature the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title of Influencers could offer devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than an frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places may also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, at least for now.