The Thriller Follow-Up <em>Influencers</em> Could Give Other Digital Thrillers Serious FOMO

“Everything about this smells 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 with an outlandish story he once said he trusted. But his assessment of the events on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, two films on demand about a woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars before killing them feels like a modern-day version of a lurid yet 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 its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and conceals those deaths (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The film concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers a degree of mystery, as returning filmmaker the director resumes with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that someone should try leaving a phone-addicted influencer somewhere without any devices to see if they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing the preferential treatment given to one fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint changes multiple times, ultimately revealing those early scenes’ chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for committing CW's offenses, but still faces doubt over her recounting of the events, including the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as part of a right-wing-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically capture CW's interest.

Naud remains immensely captivating in the part, a role that appears particularly tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's eye-catching outfits.) While the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the first film felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue or evade one another. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Influencers have a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales at little cost, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Ingenious Filmmaking and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally ingenious about finding beautiful places to visit, although they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, giving it a real-world weight that remains even as many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of characters staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle that made the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent over the years: Yes, explosive action and special effects can display large spending, but just providing a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a narrative so dependent on the coexisting superficial glamour and try-hard grind involved in producing envy-inducing online content.

Every character visiting Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, appear to enjoy access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards that don’t show off as much aerial pool footage. These individuals must believably occupy these lush, far-flung locations to emphasize the uneasy irony of how often everyone — even the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. Though it can be satisfying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment lets us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is relatively understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the isolation Madison experienced during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he’s peddling false masculinity to other gullible men; he resists caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a partner in his hypocrisy, not someone exploited of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation is that it may occasionally seem as if he’s nodding at bits of modern online life without investigating them further. This is particularly evident regarding how he brings AI into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The retitled sequel for the film might give fans of the first movie expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film does eventually provide that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than a frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of real-world locations might also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. Our society may be overrun with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself is still here, for now.