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

“The entire situation reeks like a cheap made-for-TV,” states an opportunistic podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. At that point, he’s being dismissive in a calculated way toward an interviewee with an outlandish story he previously claimed he believed. Yet his description of the events in the movie isn't inaccurate. On its face, two films on demand about a young woman who insinuates herself into the worlds of social media stars and then murders them seems like a modern-day version of a tawdry yet cable-ready weekly TV movie. The wild thing about Influencers is how much better it is compared to much of the competition, irrespective of screen size. It is precisely the suspense film capable of giving other movies a serious bout of FOMO.

Recapping the First Film and Setting the Stage

2022’s Influencer follows the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) while she quietly chooses solo-traveling influencer targets, lures them to their doom, and covers up those deaths (at least temporarily) by taking control of their online accounts. The movie leaves off (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on an uninhabited island near the coast of Thailand, after her most recent mark, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This provides the 2025 Influencers some early ambiguity, as returning filmmaker Kurtis David Harder resumes with CW happily living alongside her partner Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking the couple’s one-year anniversary, British influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW remarks to Diane that someone ought to attempt leaving a phone-addicted influencer somewhere without any devices and see whether they can survive. Are we witnessing an origin-story prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the preferential treatment afforded a single fame-seeker?

Shifting Perspectives and Global Pursuits

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, who has been exonerated for carrying out CW's offenses, but still faces doubt over her recounting of the events, including the killing of Madison’s boyfriend. The film also follows Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to juice his career as part of a conservative-influencer power couple alongside Ariana (Veronica Long), though his chosen platform is bro-heavy streams, rather than the Instagram photos that normally attract CW’s attention.

Naud remains terrifically magnetic in the part, a role that appears especially custom-fit to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) Although the follow-up's focus tips heavily toward CW — the original seemed more balanced between her and Madison — it still functions as a tale of rival investigators, as Madison and CW both use fabricated profiles, Insta-stalking, and an apparently limitless travel fund to chase or evade each other. Then again, maybe the unlimited budget aren't needed. Influencers have a talent for gaining access to posh places without paying much, a skill which CW mirrors with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The creative team for Influencers appear equally resourceful in locating stunning locations to film, though they were presumably more legitimate about it. Most of the movie seems to be filmed in real places, giving it an authentic gravity that remains even when many scenes consist of a relatively small cast of characters staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the Bond franchise look so persistently lavish over the years: Yes, explosive action and special effects can display a big budget, however simply offering a kind of visual tour to viewers also seems deeply filmic. This is especially fitting for a narrative so dependent on the coexisting surface-level allure and desperate hustle involved in producing jealousy-worthy online content.

Every character visiting Bali, similar to those who were in Thailand in the first film, seem to have entry to impossibly chic contemporary villas; there are movies about lifeguards which don't feature this much aerial pool footage. The characters have to convincingly inhabit these lush, remote places to highlight the uneasy irony of how frequently each person — even the woman wreaking vengeance on the influencers’ narcissistic falseness — nevertheless devotes much time in the glow of their screens.

Nuanced Portrayals and Digital-Age Suspense

Simultaneously, the director has not crafted a screed targeting the vacuousness of the influencer industry. While it is satisfying to watch CW exploit different internet celebrities, and a sense reminiscent of Hitchcock of alignment allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, the filmmaker is somewhat sympathetic to the key influencer figures. Previously, he tapped into the loneliness Madison experienced while on supposedly envy-worthy vacations. Here, Harder seems to trust that merely watching Jacob at work will reveal that he is selling false masculinity to other doofuses; he avoids caricaturing the character. He even grants Jacob a degree of respect by showing his genuine loyalty to his partner; he’s a hypocrite, but Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not someone exploited of it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it may occasionally seem that he is acknowledging elements of modern online life without investigating them further. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychological edge it deserves. The pluralized title of Influencers might give devotees of the original expectations of a larger-scale ante-upping, and the film ultimately delivers exactly that, with an appropriately chaotic climax. But before that, it’s more like a sleek Hitchcock thriller than a wild-eyed, tech-addled De Palma-style shocker. Influencers’ extensive use of actual places might also be what keeps it from coming across like pure nightmare fuel. Our society might be saturated with content-churning influencers, digital deception, and self-serving tourism, but reality itself is still here, for now.