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

“This whole affair reeks of a bad made-for-TV,” observes a cynical commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, his tone is dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an outlandish story he previously said he trusted. But his description of the events in the movie isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of films on demand about a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a tawdry but cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing regarding Influencers is how much better it proves to be compared to much of its competition, regardless of screen size. It’s the kind of thriller that should give other movies a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the Original and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she quietly chooses solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and conceals those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early mystery, as returning writer-director the director picks up with the character CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to Diane that someone should try leaving a device-obsessed influencer somewhere with no technology and see if they can survive. Is this a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the special treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Evolving Viewpoints and International Chases

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW’s crimes, but still faces doubt over her version of the events, which includes the killing 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), although his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that typically capture CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, which seems especially tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking outfits.) While the sequel’s focus tips heavily toward CW — the original felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a tale of dueling amateur detectives, with both women employ fake accounts, Insta-stalking, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade each other. Then again, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to posh places at little cost, a skill which CW mirrors through her more blatant scheming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding stunning locations to visit, though they were likely more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the film appears to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even when many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of people looking at digital devices.

It follows the same logic which allowed the Bond franchise appear so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, big action and visual effects can show off a big budget, however simply offering a travelogue of sorts to viewers also seems inherently cinematic. It’s also especially fitting for a story so rooted in the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle of creating envy-inducing digital content.

Every character in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards which don't feature this much overhead swimming-pool footage. The characters have to convincingly inhabit these luxurious, far-flung locations to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently each person — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the emptiness of online fame. Though it can be satisfying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to hope she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is relatively understanding of the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the isolation Madison experienced during supposedly dream getaways. Here, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob in action will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids turning into a caricature the character further. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his true devotion to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a partner in his double standards, not someone exploited by it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at bits of contemporary digital culture without investigating them. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, an intriguing development which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film might give fans of the first movie hope for a larger-scale escalation, and the movie does eventually provide exactly that, with an appropriately wild final act. But before that, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than an wild-eyed, technology-obsessed De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what keeps it from seeming like utter horror. Our society might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, for now.