Smile 2 review

2022’s Smile was a huge success, bringing in more than $200 million worldwide on a modest $17 million budget. While the marketing effort, taking full advantage of the movie’s signature creepy smile look, was clever and very effective, the movie itself was a solid entry in the horror genre and deserving of its success.

The returns on the first movie justified a significant budget bump to the sequel, and director Parker Finn has taken full advantage, amping up the scope, tension and scares for an equally good sequel that extends the mythology of the franchise and avoids slavishly repeating the high notes of its predecessor.

An unrelenting maze of flashbacks, nightmares and hallucinations-within-hallucinations, the script (also courtesy of Finn) and direction nevertheless manage the chaos deftly, and while the audience is never sure whether what we are seeing is real or imagined, it all comes together in the end.

A brutal, effective opening scene acts as a bridge between the two movies, in which police officer Joel (a returning Kyle Gallner (Veronica Mars)), boyfriend of Smile’s protagonist Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon), and now infected with the curse, attempts unsuccessfully to pass it on. 

We are soon whisked away to the celebrity pop music scene in New York, where megastar Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) prepares for a comeback tour after a public struggle with drug addiction, and a car crash that killed her movie star boyfriend and left her with physical and emotional scars. A meeting with her old drug dealer, a witness to Joel’s death, links her with the demonic entity that stalked the first film.

The smile motif translates very effectively to the vapid, dead-eyed, ruthless world of the music industry, so it feels like an inspired choice. The parallels to drug addiction and associated mental health issues ground the themes of the movie in reality and make the trippy, mind-bending effects of the curse even more unsettling.

We see every dollar of the increased budget on-screen, most effectively via Skye’s various musical numbers in the form of rehearsals for music videos and live performances. These are the kind of things that are very difficult to get right in films, but the songs, choreography and costuming are the equal of the kind of insipid but catchy pop songs charting worldwide today, and if I heard them on the radio I’d think they were real releases.

Despite a very weak filmography so far (the Charlie’s Angels, Aladdin and Power Rangers remakes), Naomi Scott is very good in this. Skye is not the easiest character to play–we are meant to dislike her at the beginning–but her arc is effective and Scott capably treads the fine line between the understanding that Skye brought a lot of her problems onto herself and rooting for a victim who decides to fight back. Scott feels like a natural when it comes to the singing and dancing required of the character too.

Also worth singling out is the delightfully nutty performance of Rosemarie DeWitt, who plays Skye’s spectacularly awful mother and agent, elevating a cliche trope to something in turns hilarious and terrifying.

The creepy smile is used to great effect throughout, and Finn easily surpasses the scares and atmosphere of the first movie, which are ably supported by unnerving sound effects, music and cinematography. An incident with a stalker got me good, and if you’ve ever thought there’s something inherently creepy about backup dancers, one scene is definitely not going to disabuse you of that notion. I also didn’t think walking into Smile 2 that “most creative fisting” was going to be on the cards, but the movie continues to surprise you.

There were no major missteps with the film, but I’m not sure knowing more about the monster added anything. It is more threatening the less you know about it, and the direction the movie takes expands the mythology naturally anyway–the ending is complete and satisfying, but also opens up a potential new direction for a second sequel.

So, no sophomore slump here. Bigger, better and, more importantly, scarier, than its predecessor, Smile 2 sticks the landing and doesn’t overstay its welcome. An easy recommendation for any horror or thriller fans.

WOKE-O-METER!

The music industry is a total freakshow, and the movie reflects that, but none of the related players come off looking good, so it doesn’t feel like it’s pushing an agenda. The main character’s masculine, Captain Marvel-style haircut is the result of an in-movie complete mental breakdown so can’t really point to that either.

The scene with Drew Barrymore (playing herself) and her melting, mopey face, seems pointlessly aggravating, but only comprises a few minutes of screen time. - GamerGate staff