Smile 2 Review: A Terrifying Sequel That Outshines the Original
Theatrical Movie Review - Horror
Sequels, especially horror sequels, often experience a significant decline in quality. It might be a good idea that crumbles when reexamined in a second movie. But Parker Finn somehow manages to defy the odds in Smile 2, the follow-up to his 2022 hit Smile. The film picks up just six days after the previous film's events, and right out of the gate, we can see that this movie will be bloodier and more intense than last time.
Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) took a year off from her successful music career following a car accident where she was severely injured and her partner died. The accident was a result of her abuse of drugs and alcohol. She is now sober, and at the urging of her mother, Elizabeth (Rosemarie DeWitt), she is about to kick off a new tour. However, the rehearsals exacerbate her injuries, so she pays a visit to her old friend Lewis (Lukas Gage) to get some stronger painkillers.
While Skye is there, Lewis kills himself violently in front of her. She leaves, trying to put it out of her mind and focus on her tour, but she begins to experience strange visions and sensations. She feels like she is going crazy until she meets Morris (Peter Jacobson), who explains that she is being haunted by an entity and offers her a way to escape its grasp.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the original film, but I absolutely loved Smile 2. While the sequel follows many of the same story beats as the original, it puts them together in a much slicker, more engaging package, filled with some gnarly kill sequences and at least one jump scare that made the entire theater react.
The performances are solid. It feels like it’s taken a minute for Scott to find a role that worked for her, but she shone in this. She managed to portray a woman struggling with the fear of a literal demon and the fear of her personal demons so well that it was sometimes hard to figure out where one started and the other began. DeWitt seemed like she had a blast playing the overbearing stage mom.
The one thing that Smile 2 did more effectively was the thematic work. Smile was essentially a movie about grief and trauma and how they consume you, but it never felt like it fully clicked quite the way Finn intended. This movie deals exceptionally well with the parasocial relationships that people form with various celebrities and the way that can impact the mental health of the star.
We have seen several young female celebrities protecting their mental well-being. Taylor Swift and Chappell Roan have both recently canceled performances for their health and safety. And during the “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” press tour, we saw Jenna Ortega stand up for her co-star Winona Ryder, encouraging her to protect herself. Smile 2 reminds us that we never know what demons someone is facing. And some of them will definitely ruin the tour.
This review originally appeared in The Dominion Post on October 20, 2024.