The Horror Follow-Up <em>Influencers</em> Could Give Competing Digital Suspense Films a Bad Case of FOMO

“This whole affair reeks like a cheap TV movie,” states a cynical podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose outlandish story he previously claimed he believed. But his assessment of the events in the movie isn’t wrong. On its face, a pair of films on demand about a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars before killing them feels like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is how much better it proves to be compared to much of its competition, irrespective of screen size. It is precisely the thriller capable of giving other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

2022’s Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers a degree of ambiguity, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW comments to Diane that someone should try leaving a phone-addicted influencer in a place with no technology to see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion regarding her version of what happened, including the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the curated images that normally capture CW's interest.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in the part, which seems particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) While the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between the two women — it still functions as a story of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase and/or escape one another. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to posh places at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating beautiful places to film, although they were likely more legitimate about it. Most of the film appears to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that lingers even when many scenes involve a relatively small cast of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It’s the same principle that made the Bond franchise look so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, big action and visual effects can display large spending, but just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels deeply filmic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

All of the characters visiting Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers which don't feature this much aerial pool footage. The characters must believably occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often everyone — including the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a rant targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it is satisfying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to hope she evades capture, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt while on supposedly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, the director appears confident that merely watching Jacob at work will reveal that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at bits of modern online life without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film could offer fans of the first movie expectations of an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the film does eventually provide that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it’s more like a polished Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places may also be what keeps it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself is still here, at least for now.