The Horror Follow-Up <em>Influencers</em> Is Set to Give Competing Streaming Suspense Films Serious FOMO

“This whole affair smells of a cheap TV movie,” remarks a cynical podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an bizarre tale he once said he trusted. But his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, 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 yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers is how much better it proves to be compared to much of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, when returning filmmaker the director resumes with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking the couple’s first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that someone should try leaving a device-obsessed online personality somewhere without any devices and see if they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt over her version of what happened, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, which seems particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) While the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still functions as a story of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue and/or escape each other. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Influencers have a talent for getting to explore posh places at little cost, a skill that CW echoes with her more overt scheming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding beautiful places to film, although they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the film appears to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even when numerous sequences consist of a relatively small cast of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the Bond franchise look so consistently opulent for decades: Yes, big action and visual effects can show off large spending, however just providing a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a story so rooted in the coexisting superficial glamour and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy online content.

Every character in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off this much aerial pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — including the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a screed against the emptiness of online fame. Though it is gratifying to see CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is relatively understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he resists turning into a caricature the character further. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not a victim by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging elements of modern online life without investigating them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers could offer devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style escalation, and the film ultimately delivers that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than a frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places might also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, at least for now.