The Thriller Follow-Up <em>Influencers</em> Could Give Competing Streaming Thrillers a Bad Case of FOMO

“The entire situation stinks of a cheap made-for-TV,” states a cynical podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest with an bizarre tale he once said he trusted. But his description of what’s happening on screen isn't inaccurate. On its face, a pair of streaming movies about a young woman who worms her way into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a lurid yet cable-ready weekly TV movie. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers remains just how superior it proves to be than plenty of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the suspense film that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer follows the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses traveling alone social media targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (at least temporarily) by seizing control of their online accounts. The film leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW marooned on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), reverses their roles against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early mystery, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s first anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to her partner that a person ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted influencer in a place without any devices and see if they can survive. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Did CW become extremist after witnessing the special treatment given to one clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The story’s perspective changes multiple times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' chronological position. The story revisits Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, but still faces doubt regarding her version of the events, including the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the Instagram photos that typically attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in the part, a role that appears particularly tailor-made for her talents. (She also designed CW's eye-catching wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s focus tips heavily toward CW — the original felt more equally divided between her and Madison — it still works as a story of rival amateur detectives, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to pursue or evade each other. Of course, maybe the vast resources aren't needed. Online personalities possess a talent for gaining access to posh places without paying much, an ability that CW echoes through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding stunning locations to visit, though they were likely more legitimate about it. Most of the movie seems to be shot on location, giving it an authentic gravity that lingers even when many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies appear so consistently opulent for decades: Indeed, explosive action and visual effects can display a big budget, but just providing a kind of visual tour to viewers also feels deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a story so dependent on the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character in Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals have to convincingly inhabit these lush, far-flung locations to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently each person — including the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the emptiness of online fame. While it can be satisfying to watch CW exploit various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to hope she doesn’t get caught, Harder is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he keyed into the loneliness Madison experienced during supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other doofuses; he resists caricaturing the character. He even gives Jacob a degree of respect through depicting his true devotion to his girlfriend; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The flip side of this balanced approach is that it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging bits of contemporary digital culture without deeply exploring them. This is especially true of the way he brings AI into the story, an intriguing development that lacks the psychological edge it deserves. The retitled sequel of Influencers might give devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a sleek Alfred Hitchcock movie than a frenzied, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places may also be what keeps it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. Our society may be overrun with always-online creators, online fraud, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself remains present, for now.