This Horror Follow-Up <em>Influencers</em> Is Set to Give Other Digital Suspense Films a Bad Case of FOMO

“The entire situation smells of a cheap made-for-TV,” observes a cynical podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. But his description of what’s happening in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of streaming movies about a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers before killing them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is how much better it proves to be than plenty of its competition, irrespective of screen size. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the Original and Setting the Stage

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (for a time) by taking control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, following her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning writer-director the director picks up with CW contentedly residing alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip marking their first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and anger.

CW remarks to her partner that a person ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted influencer in a place with no technology to see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the special treatment afforded one clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been cleared of committing CW's offenses, yet still encounters suspicion regarding her recounting of what happened, including the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer power couple with Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be immensely captivating in her role, a role that appears especially custom-fit for her talents. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) Although the follow-up's screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film felt more equally divided between the two women — it still works as a story of dueling investigators, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase or evade each other. Then again, perhaps the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for gaining access to posh places without paying much, a skill that CW echoes with her more overt scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding beautiful places to visit, though they were presumably less nefarious in their methods. Most of the film seems to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even when many scenes involve a handful of actors of characters looking at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise look so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, big action and special effects can show off large spending, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a story so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the original, seem to have entry to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature this much aerial pool footage. The characters have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how frequently each person — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nonetheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the vacuousness of online fame. While it can be satisfying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification lets us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced during supposedly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob in action will make it clear that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited by it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means 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, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it should have. The retitled sequel for the film could offer fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the movie does eventually provide exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a frenzied, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places may also be what prevents it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, for now.