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

“This whole affair stinks like a bad TV movie,” states a cynical podcaster during the horror sequel Influencers. At that point, his tone is manipulatively dismissive of a guest whose bizarre tale he previously claimed he believed. But his assessment of the events on screen isn’t wrong. Superficially, a pair of films on demand chronicling a young woman who worms her way into the lives of social media stars and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet network-approved Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect about Influencers remains how much better it is than plenty of the competition, regardless of screen size. It is precisely the thriller that should give its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those deaths (for a time) by seizing control of their online accounts. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, following her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides 2025's Influencers some early mystery, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder picks up with the character CW contentedly residing with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW's attention and anger.

CW comments to her partner that someone ought to attempt leaving a device-obsessed online personality somewhere with no technology to see if they can make it. Is this an origin-story prequel? Did CW become extremist by seeing the preferential treatment given to a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives 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 exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, yet still encounters doubt regarding her version of what happened, which includes the murder of her boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), based in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a right-wing-influencer duo 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 her role, which seems particularly custom-fit for her talents. (She also designed CW's striking wardrobe.) Although the sequel’s screentime balance leans heavily into CW — the original seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a story of rival investigators, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and an apparently limitless travel fund to pursue and/or escape each other. Of course, perhaps the unlimited budget aren't needed. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore posh places without paying much, a skill that CW echoes with her more overt scheming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers seem similarly ingenious about finding stunning locations to film, though they were presumably more legitimate about it. Most of the movie appears to be shot on location, providing it an authentic gravity that remains even as numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of people looking at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, explosive action and special effects can show off large spending, however simply offering a kind of visual tour to viewers also feels inherently cinematic. It’s also especially fitting for a narrative so dependent on the simultaneous superficial glamour and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

All of the characters in Bali, like those who were in Thailand in the original, appear to enjoy entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers which don't feature as much aerial pool footage. The characters must believably occupy these luxurious, far-flung locations to emphasize the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — even the woman exacting revenge upon the online stars' narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

At the same time, Harder hasn’t authored a screed targeting the emptiness of online fame. Though it can be gratifying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification allows us to wish she evades capture, Harder is somewhat understanding of the key influencer figures. In the first movie, he tapped into the loneliness Madison felt while on supposedly dream getaways. In this film, 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 further. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The other side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it can sometimes appear as if he’s nodding at bits of modern online life without investigating them further. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the plot, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers could offer fans of the first movie expectations of an Aliens-style ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, tech-addled Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations may also be what prevents it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with always-online creators, digital deception, and exploitative travel, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.