This Horror Follow-Up <em>Influencers</em> Could Give Competing Streaming Thrillers a Bad Case of FOMO

“The entire situation smells like a bad TV movie,” states a cynical podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest whose bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. But his assessment of the events in the movie isn’t wrong. On its face, two films on demand about a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of online influencers and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but network-approved weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is how much better it is than plenty of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, entices them to their doom, and conceals those murders (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early mystery, when returning filmmaker the director picks up with the character CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that someone should try leaving a phone-addicted online personality somewhere with no technology to see if they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, now cleared of committing CW's offenses, but still faces doubt over her recounting of what happened, which includes the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside 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 immensely captivating in her role, which seems especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the first film seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of dueling amateur detectives, with both women employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase or evade each other. Of course, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to posh places without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers appear equally ingenious about finding beautiful places to visit, though they were likely more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the film seems to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that lingers even as many scenes involve a handful of actors of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent for decades: Yes, explosive action and visual effects can display large spending, however just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters must believably inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to highlight the uneasy irony of how often each person — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a rant against the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it is satisfying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment allows us to hope she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced during ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of this balanced approach is that it may occasionally seem as if he is acknowledging elements of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is particularly evident regarding how he brings AI into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it should have. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the movie ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. But before that, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what keeps it from seeming like utter horror. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, at least for now.