This Horror Follow-Up <em>Influencers</em> Is Set to Give Other Digital Suspense Films Serious FOMO

“Everything about this reeks of a bad TV movie,” remarks an opportunistic commentator during the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, his tone is manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. But his description of what’s happening in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, two streaming movies about a woman who worms her way into the lives of social media stars and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing regarding Influencers remains how much better it proves to be compared to much of the competition, regardless of where you watch it. 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 follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those murders (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island off the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early mystery, as returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder resumes with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and ire.

CW comments to Diane that someone should try stranding a phone-addicted influencer in a place with no technology and see if they can survive. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces doubt regarding her version of what happened, including the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a right-wing-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally attract CW's interest.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in the part, which seems especially tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a story of dueling amateur detectives, as Madison and CW both use fake accounts, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue or evade each other. Of course, perhaps the vast resources isn’t necessary. Influencers have a talent for gaining access to posh places without paying much, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating stunning locations to visit, though they were likely less nefarious about it. The vast majority of the movie appears to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that lingers even as many scenes consist of a handful of actors of people looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish for decades: Indeed, big action and visual effects can display large spending, however simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels deeply filmic. It’s also particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting superficial glamour and desperate hustle of creating jealousy-worthy online content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature as much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals must believably inhabit these luxurious, remote places to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the emptiness of online fame. Though it can be satisfying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification lets us to wish she evades capture, the filmmaker is relatively sympathetic to the major influencer characters. In the first movie, he tapped into the loneliness Madison experienced while on supposedly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not a victim of it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging elements of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is especially true regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, an intriguing development that lacks the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel of Influencers might give devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than a frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what keeps it from seeming like utter horror. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, for now.