The Thriller Sequel <em>Influencers</em> Could Give Competing Digital Suspense Films a Bad Case of FOMO

“Everything about this stinks like a bad made-for-TV,” states an opportunistic podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee with an bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. But his description of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, two films on demand chronicling a woman who worms her way into the worlds of online influencers before killing 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 is compared to much of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their doom, and conceals those murders (for a time) by seizing control of their online accounts. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island near 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, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder resumes with the character 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 Diane that someone ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted online personality in a place with no technology to see whether they can make it. Is this an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the special treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of committing CW's offenses, but still faces doubt over her version of what happened, including the killing of her boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to juice his career as half of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images that typically attract CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, which seems especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward CW — the original felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still functions as a story of rival amateur detectives, with both women employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and an apparently unlimited travel budget to chase or evade each other. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Influencers have a talent for gaining access to posh places at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful in locating beautiful places to visit, although they were likely more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that lingers even as many scenes involve a handful of actors of people looking at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle that made the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish for decades: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can display large spending, but just providing a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and try-hard grind involved in producing jealousy-worthy online content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; there are movies concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool video. The characters must believably occupy these lush, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the vacuousness of the influencer industry. Though it can be satisfying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification lets us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced during ostensibly dream getaways. Here, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at bits of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie ultimately delivers that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it’s more like a polished Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places might also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. The world might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but reality itself is still here, at least for now.