This Thriller Sequel <em>Influencers</em> Is Set to Give Other Streaming Suspense Films a Bad Case of FOMO

“Everything about this smells like a bad made-for-TV,” states an opportunistic commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. But his assessment of what’s happening in the movie isn’t wrong. On its face, a pair of streaming movies about a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers remains how much better it proves to be compared to much of the competition, regardless of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder resumes with the character 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 attention and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that someone should try stranding a device-obsessed influencer in a place without any devices and see if they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt over her recounting of the events, which includes the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in the part, which seems especially tailor-made for her talents. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) While the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a story of rival amateur detectives, with both women both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue or evade each other. Of course, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally ingenious in locating stunning locations to film, though they were likely more legitimate in their methods. Most of the film seems to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even when numerous sequences consist of a relatively small cast of characters looking at digital devices.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent over the years: Indeed, big action and visual effects can show off large spending, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts to viewers also feels inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a story so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to impossibly chic modern bungalows; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off as much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently each person — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nevertheless devotes much time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed against the emptiness of online fame. Though it can be gratifying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a Hitchcockian sense of identification lets us to hope she evades capture, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison felt while on ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob in action will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character further. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach is that it may occasionally seem as if he is acknowledging elements of modern online life without investigating them. This is especially true of the way he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it should have. The pluralized title for the film might give devotees of the original hope for 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 polished Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations might also be what keeps it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, for now.