This Thriller Sequel <em>Influencers</em> Could Give Other Streaming Thrillers a Bad Case of FOMO

“This whole affair smells of a bad TV movie,” states an opportunistic commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way of a guest with an outlandish story he previously said he trusted. But his assessment of the events on screen isn't inaccurate. Superficially, two films on demand about a young woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers before killing them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be compared to much of its competition, regardless of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film that should give other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, lures them to their doom, and covers up those deaths (at least temporarily) by taking control of their socials. The film 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 ambiguity, as returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate their one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and ire.

CW remarks to her partner that a person should try stranding a phone-addicted online personality somewhere with no technology and see if they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. The story revisits Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW's offenses, but still faces suspicion over her version of what happened, which includes the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically attract CW's interest.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) While the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still functions as a story of rival amateur detectives, with both women both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue and/or escape each other. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a knack for gaining access to posh places at little cost, a skill which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful in locating beautiful places to film, though they were presumably more legitimate about it. The vast majority of the film appears to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that lingers even when numerous sequences consist of a relatively small cast of characters staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the James Bond movies look so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, explosive action and special effects can display large spending, however simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also seems deeply filmic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy entry to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; there are movies concerning beach rescuers which don't feature as much aerial pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently everyone — even the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant against the emptiness of online fame. Though it is satisfying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment lets us to hope she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will reveal that he’s peddling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids turning into a caricature the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of this balanced approach is that it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at bits of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title for the film could offer fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers that, with an appropriately wild final act. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.