The Thriller Follow-Up <em>Influencers</em> Is Set to Give Other Streaming Thrillers Serious FOMO

“This whole affair reeks of a cheap made-for-TV,” remarks an opportunistic podcaster midway through the horror sequel Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee whose outlandish story he previously claimed he believed. Yet his description of what’s happening in the movie isn't inaccurate. Superficially, two films on demand about a woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid but cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers is just how superior it proves to be compared to much of its competition, regardless of where you watch it. It’s the kind of thriller that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early mystery, when returning writer-director Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and ire.

CW remarks to her partner that a person should try stranding a phone-addicted online personality in a place with no technology to see whether they can make it. Is this an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' place in the timeline. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of carrying out CW’s crimes, yet still encounters doubt regarding her recounting of the events, including the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that normally attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in her role, a role that appears particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) Although the sequel’s focus leans heavily into CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still functions as a story of rival investigators, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to chase or evade each other. Of course, perhaps the vast resources isn’t necessary. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales at little cost, a skill which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious in locating beautiful places to visit, though they were presumably less nefarious in their methods. The vast majority of the film seems to be filmed in real places, providing it a real-world weight that lingers even as many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of people staring at digital devices.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent for decades: Yes, explosive action and special effects can display large spending, however just providing a travelogue of sorts to viewers also feels deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; films exist concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much aerial pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, remote places to emphasize the uneasy irony of how frequently each person — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored 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 alignment allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the loneliness Madison experienced while on supposedly envy-worthy vacations. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids turning into a caricature the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect through depicting 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 means it may occasionally seem that he’s nodding at elements of modern online life without deeply exploring them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he introduces artificial intelligence 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 expectations of an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Hitchcock thriller than an frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from coming across like utter horror. The world may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, at least for now.