Against all odds, Smile, a psychological horror film from writer/director Parker Finn wound up becoming one of the highest-grossing horror films of all time. And to do that in the post-COVID landscape is truly remarkable. Of course, there had to be a follow up sequel to this kind of hit. Considering both audiences and critics alike really dug the material, it was an inevitability. Parker Finn, the writer/director, signed a first-look deal with the distributor of Smile, Paramount, and the Smile team was quickly off to revisit the brilliant concept. Following up an original feature is difficult, especially in such a short period of time. However, I am pleased to report that Smile 2 delivers. But it isn’t without its flaws, so let’s get into it…
Smile 2 continues the terror
As expected, well, for me at least, Smile 2 is a direct continuation of the original. Smile is a few years old at this point, so expect some spoilers for the first. At the end of Smile, Rose, played by Sosie Bacon, ends up succumbing to the supernatural evil that haunted her throughout the entirety of the film. Rose’s sort of love interest, Joel, played by scream king Kyle Gallner, witnesses Rose’s death, so of course, the entity is passed to him. Smile 2 cold opens six days after Rose’s death and the audience is now in Joel’s point-of-view. Joel is clearly at wits end with this situation and seems to have devised a plan to get rid of the entity in the best way he knows how.
In one of the most exhilarating sequences in the movie, Joel goes all the way with this attempt and the result is spectacular. Not only is it a really exciting and explosive sequence, but it then perfectly raises the stakes, and the audience knows they are in for a wild ride. Just an elite opening sequence that grabs the audience by the balls and refuses to let go for two hours…
At this point, we meet Skye Riley, played by Naomi Scott. Skye is a world-famous pop sensation. But of course, because it is a 2024 horror movie, she also has a traumatic past, more on that later. Since this is a Smile movie, Skye finds herself smack dab in the middle of this entity’s war path.
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I found the writing that leads up to Skye being infected phenomenal in terms of pace and structure. Skye Riley is rebuilding herself in a sense, although her career is just as big as it ever was, Skye was involved in a car accident a year prior. An accident where the driver, her famous actor boyfriend, Paul Hudson, played by Ray Nicholson (son of world-famous grinner and greatest actor of all time, Jack Nicholson), died in this crash. Skye survived and has been on the mend ever since. About a year after that, Skye witnesses a grisly suicide, and with this, she is introduced to the demonic entity and main antagonist of this franchise…
As the story progresses, we stay in Skye’s perspective throughout, experiencing the tribulations in her life and the unfortunate situation she is in with this entity. Bouncing around from interesting set piece to interesting set piece where the horror elements of each scene are well conceptualized and extremely well executed. With that said, I did find some of these sequences to be a little bit repetitive as the movie wore on. In fact, Smile 2 running over two hours is simply unnecessary. I will sit and watch a movie of any length, binge a mini-series or season of television. Hell, I’ll watch multiple seasons of television in one sitting on some occasions in my sad life. For me, it’s all about the pace and storytelling progression. The pace in Smile 2 is just fine. It’s entertaining and it flies by. But the storytelling progression is sometimes frustrating. There are times when the movie just doesn’t move forward.
Smile 2 is often predictable. But that’s not necessarily a deterrent.
There are a many moments and sequences in Smile 2 that are likely to read as predictable for those familiar with filmmaking tricks. Now, I don’t necessarily mean that as an insult. I still had a fun time knowing what was going to happen in certain moments. The looming dread and tension built because of that familiarity made it all the better. I won’t spoil anything so that you can enjoy the movie, but if you know the beats of how the original played out, then I assume you can pick up on what I am putting down here…
On the technical side, Smile 2 is remarkable. Everything from the scary visuals to the lively camera to creative angles and shots that should be dizzying but aren’t, and of course, the monster effects/visuals of the entity are outstanding. Parker Finn really burst onto the scene with the original Smile. His visual feel for filmmaking is dazzling and is up there with any of his peers in terms of creating a sequence that will scare the hell out of an audience. In sports, the repertoire of skills is called the “bag”, Finn has many filmmaking skills in his bag and it’s very early in his career. He seems to understand how to build tension by creating dread slowly, but then also understands how to make the audience jump out of their seats abruptly. Finn knows which buttons to push and when.
A young cast with infectious energy
The performances in Smile 2 are all pretty great. Kyle Gallner, specifically in the prologue sequence, is phenomenal in this movie. And I also thought Lukas Gage and Ray Nicholson displayed unique expressiveness and infectious energy that made them interesting characters. And of course, Naomi Scott’s performance as Skye Riley is great and, in my opinion, a star-making performance. Before Smile 2, I was only familiar with Scott as Princess Jasmine in Guy Ritchie’s extremely underrated live action adaptation of Aladdin. Scott possesses an electric aura in that movie, and it seems obvious that she is going to be a big star.
To transition out of just handing out flowers to everyone involved, I will say that even though Finn’s visual feel is spectacular, I believe his weakness lies in the lackluster early third acts of both Smile movies. The way I see it, and I could be dead wrong, is that Finn knows exactly how he wants these movies to end, but he has a hard time getting to that ending in the third act. Smile 2 seems engineered in a way where the first and second acts, especially the prologue, are carefully conceptualized and effective storytelling with good pace.The wheels come off a little bit in the early part of the third and final act. The grand finale is totally disjointed from the majority of the third act which ends up being a frustrating and confusing lead up to the otherwise great conclusion. Even though this third act had plenty of scares, after the movie had concluded I couldn’t figure out what happened to get to that point in the finale. Should make for an interesting rewatch, but I found it mildly infuriating on first watch…
Trauma in horror, enough already
Not to be a negative Nancy Thompson, but I do have another bone to pick with the overuse of an off-screen traumatic past for the protagonist of a horror movie. Obviously, every story is different, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. But I feel like this specific storytelling crutch has become way too frequent. At this point, it feels way too obvious of a metaphor to link. I hate speaking in generalities, but not every protagonist needs to be some severely damaged headcase who will inevitably either be further damaged, or have to confront that traumatic history.
What I love most about horror movies is the idea that these horrific scenarios can happen to anyone. Sometimes the outcome can go unexplained. Sometimes it doesn’t end well for the main character, and sometimes it does. What I like about the Smile franchise so far, and especially Smile 2, is that they are going to dark places that are extremely unsettling, while also maintaining a mystique and unpredictability to the outcome, even if moment to moment it might seem predictable. Giving Skye a traumatic past in Smile 2 worked for this movie because of the subject matter and the entity’s approach to being a villain, but when that aspect was introduced, I can’t lie and say I didn’t let out a deep sigh and an “Ah. Here we go again” …
Smile 2 is crushing it at the box office
Smile 2 had a killer opening weekend at the box office. Raking in $23 million domestically and winning the weekend at the box office is incredibly impressive. Goes without saying that the marketing played a huge factor in its success. But marketing can only take a movie so far. Smile 2 delivers as an entertaining movie that although it is long, doesn’t always feel long, because the action is generally engaging, and the scares are delivered at a good rate…
All in all:
I really enjoyed Smile 2. The performances are excellent and the writing, albeit a little nonsensical at times, knows exactly what movie it is and hardly strays from keeping the train on the tracks. I absolutely love how original this movie is, and how well the Smile universe works as a whole. There is plenty of unexplored lore, and endless possibilities still for this to be a potential long-running franchise. Finn and the entire filmmaking operation have been firing on all cylinders for both movies, especially Smile 2, and the result is a gruesome, unsettling and extremely enjoyable horror movie that is a damn good sequel. I’d imagine the critical and commercial success of Smile 2 will be a career highlight for those involved, and fans of the genre are for sure going to have fun with this one…
Wicked Horror Rating: 7.5/10
From Paramount Pictures, Smile 2 is playing exclusively in theaters as of October 18th, 2024.
