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

“The entire situation reeks like a bad TV movie,” remarks a cynical commentator during the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee whose bizarre tale he once claimed he believed. Yet his assessment of what’s happening on screen isn’t wrong. On its face, a pair of streaming movies chronicling a young woman who insinuates herself into the lives of online influencers before killing them feels like a modern-day version of a tawdry but cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers is how much better it is compared to much of the competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It’s the kind of suspense film that should give its peers a serious bout of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the enigmatic CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects solo-traveling social media targets, entices them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (for a time) by seizing control of their socials. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island off the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables against her.

This lends the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning writer-director the director picks up with CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. During a trip to celebrate the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) draws CW's attention and ire.

CW comments to Diane that a person ought to attempt stranding a phone-addicted online personality somewhere with no technology and see whether they can make it. Are we witnessing a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized after witnessing 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 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), living in Bali attempting to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his preferred medium is bro-heavy streams, rather than the curated images that typically attract CW’s attention.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in the part, a role that appears especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created 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 story of dueling investigators, with both women employ fabricated profiles, social media surveillance, and a seemingly unlimited travel budget to pursue or evade each other. Then again, perhaps the unlimited budget isn’t necessary. Online personalities possess a knack for getting to explore luxurious locales without paying much, an ability which CW mirrors through her more blatant scamming.

Resourceful Production and Cinematic Travelogue

The filmmakers behind Influencers appear equally ingenious in locating beautiful places to visit, although they were presumably more legitimate in their methods. The vast majority of the film appears to be shot on location, providing it a real-world weight that lingers even when numerous sequences involve a handful of actors of characters staring at digital devices.

It’s the same principle which allowed the Bond franchise appear so persistently lavish for decades: Yes, big action and visual effects can display a big budget, but simply offering a travelogue of sorts for the audience also feels deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a story so rooted in the simultaneous surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, similar to those staying in Thailand in the first film, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish modern bungalows; films exist about lifeguards that don’t show off this much overhead swimming-pool footage. These individuals must believably occupy these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently each person — even the woman exacting revenge on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nonetheless devotes much time in the glow of their devices.

Nuanced Portrayals and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a rant against the emptiness of the influencer industry. Though it is satisfying to see CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of identification allows us to wish she evades capture, Harder is somewhat understanding of the major influencer characters. Previously, he keyed into the loneliness Madison felt while on ostensibly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that just observing Jacob at work will make it clear that he is selling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a measure of dignity through depicting his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim of it.

The flip side of Harder’s even-keeled presentation means it may occasionally seem as if he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without investigating them further. This is especially true regarding how he brings AI into the story, a fascinating turn that lacks the psychosexual kick it deserves. The pluralized title for the film might give devotees of the original hope for a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers that, with a suitably chaotic climax. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Alfred Hitchcock movie than an wild-eyed, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ heavy use of actual places might also be what prevents it from seeming like utter horror. The world might be saturated with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but the world itself remains present, at least for now.