This Horror Follow-Up <em>Influencers</em> Will Give Competing Streaming Suspense Films Serious FOMO

“Everything about this smells like a bad TV movie,” states an opportunistic podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose outlandish story he previously claimed he believed. Yet his assessment of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, two streaming movies chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of online influencers before killing them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry but cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains how much better it proves to be compared to much of its competition, regardless of screen size. It is precisely the thriller capable of giving its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers a degree of mystery, as returning writer-director the director picks up with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking the couple’s first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW remarks to her partner that someone ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted online personality in a place with no technology and see if they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion over her version of what happened, which includes the murder of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to juice his career as half of a right-wing-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in the part, which seems particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a tale of dueling investigators, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase or evade one another. Of course, perhaps the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, a skill which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating beautiful places to film, though they were presumably less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that lingers even when numerous sequences consist of a handful of actors of characters staring at digital devices.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can display large spending, but just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also feels inherently cinematic. It’s also especially fitting for a story so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters must believably inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. Though it can be gratifying to watch CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment allows us to hope she evades capture, Harder is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he tapped into the loneliness Madison experienced during supposedly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob in action will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear as if he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without investigating them further. This is especially true regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers could offer devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. But before that, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what keeps it from coming across like utter horror. Our society may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.