The Thriller Follow-Up <em>Influencers</em> Will Give Competing Digital Thrillers a Bad Case of FOMO

“This whole affair smells of a bad TV movie,” observes an opportunistic commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he previously said he trusted. Yet his description of what’s happening in the movie isn’t wrong. On its face, a pair of streaming movies about a woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers and then murders them feels like a modern-day version of a lurid yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers remains how much better it proves to be compared to much of its competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

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

This lends the 2025 Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to her partner that a person ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted online personality in a place without any devices and see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the special treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt regarding her recounting of what happened, which includes the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer duo alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images that typically capture CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in her role, which seems particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's striking wardrobe.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a tale of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and an apparently limitless travel fund to chase or evade one another. Of course, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to posh places at little cost, an ability that CW echoes with her more overt scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers appear equally ingenious about finding beautiful places to film, although they were presumably less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the film seems to be shot on location, giving it a real-world weight that lingers even when many scenes consist of a handful of actors of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise appear so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, big action and special effects can display large spending, however just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters have to convincingly occupy these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently everyone — even the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a rant targeting the emptiness of online fame. Though it can be satisfying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt during ostensibly dream getaways. 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 gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not a victim by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it may occasionally seem that he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is especially true regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development that lacks the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film could offer devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style escalation, and the film does eventually provide exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. But before that, it’s more like a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places may also be what prevents it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself is still here, for now.