This Horror Follow-Up <em>Influencers</em> Could Give Competing Digital Thrillers Serious FOMO

“This whole affair smells like a bad made-for-TV,” observes an opportunistic podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee with an bizarre tale he once said he trusted. But his description of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, two films on demand about a woman who worms her way into the worlds of online influencers and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid yet cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains how much better it proves to be compared to much of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

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

CW comments to her partner that a person should try leaving a phone-addicted influencer somewhere with no technology and see if they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the special treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of committing CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion over her recounting of what happened, which includes the killing of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali attempting to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the curated images that typically capture CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears particularly custom-fit to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) While the follow-up's screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a story of dueling investigators, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue and/or escape one another. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore posh places without paying much, a skill 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, though they were likely less nefarious about it. The vast majority of the movie appears to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that lingers even when many scenes involve a relatively small cast of characters looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise appear so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, big action and special effects can show off a big budget, however just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also feels inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a story so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and desperate hustle of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much aerial pool video. The characters must believably inhabit these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the vacuousness of online fame. Though it can be satisfying to see CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced while on supposedly dream getaways. In this film, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident regarding how he brings AI into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film could offer devotees of the original expectations of an Aliens-style escalation, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places might also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but reality itself remains present, for now.