This Horror Sequel <em>Influencers</em> Will Give Other Streaming Suspense Films Serious FOMO

“Everything about this stinks of a cheap made-for-TV,” remarks an opportunistic commentator midway through the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. Yet his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, two streaming movies chronicling a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The wild thing regarding Influencers is just how superior it proves to be compared to much of its competition, regardless of where you watch it. It is precisely the suspense film that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she methodically selects traveling alone social media targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early mystery, when returning filmmaker the director picks up with the character CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and ire.

CW remarks to her partner that a person should try leaving a device-obsessed online personality in a place without any devices and see if they can survive. Is this a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment afforded one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, ultimately revealing those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW’s crimes, but still faces suspicion over her version of what happened, including the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the curated images that normally attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) While the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a story of rival investigators, with both women employ fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue or evade each other. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Influencers have a talent for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly resourceful about finding beautiful places to visit, although they were likely less nefarious about it. The vast majority of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that remains even when many scenes involve a handful of actors of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish for decades: Indeed, explosive action and special effects can show off a big budget, but simply offering a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels inherently cinematic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind of creating jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character in Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards that don’t show off as much aerial pool footage. These individuals must believably inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how often everyone — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nevertheless devotes much time in the glow of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed against the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it is gratifying to see CW manipulate different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to hope she evades capture, Harder is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt during ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of this balanced approach is that it can sometimes appear that he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them further. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it’s more like a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. The world may be overrun with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, for now.