Smile was introduced to audiences in 2022 and became a surprise hit for first-time director Parker Finn, cementing him as a horror auteur to look out for.
His sequel Smile 2 puts the first film’s level of horror on a whole new level with an incredible performance in Naomi Scott.
Expanding on the original movie, Smile 2 takes that horror concept and heightens it with a new protagonist in pop singer Skye Riley (Scott). Offering a fresh new perspective with a familiar formula, it is one of those rare horror sequels that surpass the original in every way possible.
The movie carefully blends the supernatural and psychological horror to give enough scares and provide some commentary on mental health.
Picking up nearly a week after the first film, Smile 2 opens with a prologue that showcases the whereabouts of cop Joel (Kyle Gallner) before the curse gets passed down to Skye through her drug mule former classmate Lewis (Lukas Gage).
We follow Skye as she is about to embark on a world tour after coming out of rehab and a tragic accident that happened a year ago that nearly took her life and that of her partner (Ray Nicholson). It isn’t until witnessing the death of Lewis that Skye’s life and sanity spiral out of control once the demonic entity takes hold of her.
Skye soon loses her grip on reality as she can’t differentiate between what’s real and what’s not. Her life goes out of control as it affects her loved ones and those around her as she begins to step back into the limelight. The entity starts to feed on her mentality before it forces her to kill herself in front of another person, affectingly passing the curse onto someone else like a parasite.
Following up on Sosie Bacon’s role in the first film, Naomi Scott puts in all the work with her character of Skye and it far succeeds in what she is given.
The camera focuses on Skye for most of its runtime, putting the audience in her shoes and she experiences the psychological horrors she is going through with this metaphysical entity. We feel the pain and torture that she succumbs to as she faces her dreadful past and how that is resurfacing in her present.
When the craziness starts to happen on screen, Naomi goes all out in her performance. She does a fantastic job of emulating a pop star whose life is slowly falling apart. Not only is she trying to fight off this spiritual presence, but she also has to make others believe that she is not going insane. The film does a great job of highlighting the pressures of fame and how that can affect someone mentally, especially in the form of horror.
What also works in this sequel is the overtone that Parker Finn and his crew have set. The cinematography by Charlie Sarroff is well done, with its upside-down shots and claustrophobic shots of Skye that give off this psychological atmosphere. The nightmarish visions that appear on the screen almost feel like a body horror movie as it makes that break from reality to a dream-like scenario.
There are plenty of scares in this film as Parker Finn effectively paces them to make it unpredictable for the audience. We see the smile entity take many forms, whether it’s a crazed stalker or a bunch of obsessed fans, making it hard for our protagonist to find a safe place to hide.
There are times when it feels like the entity is playing mind games with Skye, making it hard for us to realize that whatever happened on screen wasn’t all real for her.
Sometimes, the plot doesn’t always take its storylines more seriously, much like the first film did. We only got a glimpse of Skye’s backstory through the horrific visions she faces.
With the two-hour runtime, some of that could’ve been used to help tackle some of the mental health issues that Skye is going through, especially since she is a global pop star with her life being observed everywhere she goes.
It just shows that in this horror film, there is nowhere to hide and it plays well in the background with the creepy sounds. Thanks to composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer, the soundtrack offers enough disturbing chords to make this movie come together. There are some interesting concepts that Smile 2 introduces to the audience as we get more insight into the entity but still keep its origins a mystery.
Smile 2 is a worthy sequel that just brings out the best of Parker Finn’s wild imagination and amps it up to new heights. It showcases how incredible Naomi Scott’s abilities are as an actress with her strong performance. This tops the original in so many ways and offers commentary on the music industry, giving audiences something to smile about in horror.
Smile 2 is currently showing in theaters.
