THE STORY – About to embark on a new world tour, global pop sensation Skye Riley begins to experience increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events. Overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and pressures of fame, she must face her dark past to regain control of her life before it spirals out of control.
THE CAST – Naomi Scott, Rosemarie DeWitt, Kyle Gallner, Lukas Gage, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Peter Jacobson, Raúl Castillo, Dylan Gelula & Ray Nicholson
THE TEAM – Parker Finn (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 127 Minutes
For years, horror has adhered to the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” model. The first “Smile” film was certainly not “broke.” Indeed, the 2022 sleeper hit was one of the more effective mainstream studio horror films in recent memory. The marketing for the sequel promised more of the same: hallucinations of smiling demons slowly driving a protagonist insane. But it also promised to show us something new: a protagonist who is a pop singer on a worldwide tour. A “Happy Death Day” type “keep trying to kill yourself to stop the monster?” subplot. What “Smile 2” ends up being instead is a largely beat-for-beat remake of the first film, albeit with more gore and a bigger budget to stage larger action sequences. It’s a fun enough encore performance but one that is frustratingly unwilling to break free from the first film’s formula, giving audiences more of the same but with an even more giant smile.
When “Smile” ended, police officer Joel (Kyle Gallner) had just watched the smiling demon possess his former girlfriend and proceed to torch herself alive in front of him, thereby passing the demon onto him. “Smile 2” picks up shortly after. Joel is aware that the demon tortures its victims for about a week before driving them to commit suicide in front of someone else, passing the curse along. Understandably, Joel is committed to finding a workaround for ridding himself of the demon without dying. As you can probably guess from the fact that Joel is not at the center of the marketing, things don’t go as planned, and before long, the demon has made its way to a small-time drug dealer (Lukas Gage) who boasts, among his clientele, famous pop star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott).
Riley has spent the past year in rehab after surviving a drug-induced car accident that killed her boyfriend and damaged her reputation. Her manager-mother (Rosemary Dewitt) is blind to Riley’s apparent emotional instability (she has developed a nervous habit of ripping out her hair) or the ongoing impact of physical injuries Riley sustained in the car accident and has set her up to begin a Taylor Swift Eras-scale world tour. When Riley drops by her former drug dealer’s apartment to pick up painkillers for her still injured back, she witnesses the dealer bludgeon himself to death. And thus, the demon has found its latest victim and we’ve got our latest film in what is likely a new horror franchise. Now, with the tour only a few days away, while trying to juggle photoshoots, fan meet and greets, and rehearsals, Riley starts seeing the smiling demon everywhere, one who can alter the very nature of her reality, causing her to act like, well, a recovering addict who has relapsed and is about to go insane.
Despite the increased budget and more extensive cast of characters, “Smile 2” doesn’t actually go as “big” as one might expect from the marketing. Skye is not “on tour” yet, which means much of the film actually mirrors the first, which is to say, the protagonist is isolated and alone in her apartment and is haunted by the demon. On one hand, that is a smart decision as the scares work better in isolation. On the other hand, it feels like a letdown because the film doesn’t explore the idea of being haunted while actually on a massive concert tour. Midway through the film, Skye encounters Morris (Peter Jacobson), who claims to be related to a former Smile demon victim. He theorizes that the chain could be stopped if Skye temporarily kills herself. However, the film explores this theory less than you might expect for reasons that can’t be discussed without spoilers. Most of the film is the same as the first: hallucinate in public, hallucinate in private but think you’re in public because the demon is manipulating you, rinse, and repeat.
Skye being a celebrity rather than a psychologist means her meltdowns tend to be more public (autograph signings, rehearsals, and, in one of the film’s funnier moments, at a charity gala). Just as with the first film, the protagonist is already struggling with additional stressors even before becoming cursed. Everybody wants a piece of Skye, and she has no time to breathe, grieve, or recover. Still, “Smile 2” isn’t really interested in exploring Skye’s psychology. Neither she nor any of the supporting characters are particularly well fleshed out. To that end, neither is the world nor the film’s smile monster. While the film isn’t an acting showcase for the most part, Naomi Scott is quite effective as a pop singer who is already on her way to losing her mind and just needs a little push, turning in what is easily her best work to date.
“Smile 2” is most interested in not the characters, not the worldbuilding, but packing in jump scares. And as with the first “Smile,” the jump scares are plentiful. Thanks to the film’s aggressive sound design, several will literally cause you to jump out of your seat. Still, the scares aren’t as fresh as the first time around. The film runs more than two hours, and the scares become more spread out, which means the viewer isn’t on edge the entire time the way it was the first time. Moreover, whereas the reveals in the first film that something hadn’t actually occurred because the demon was manipulating the protagonist’s reality were shocking, the viewer is primed this time around to expect scenes and characters to be fake, and thus, certain twists end up packing less a punch than they should. Particularly frustrating is the predictable ending, which many correctly predicted as soon as the film’s premise was announced.
Where “Smile 2” does improve on its predecessor is its macabre sense of humor. There is a certain absurdity to a monster who boasts freakish grins, and returning director Parker Finn recognizes this. The demons attack, at times, in the formation of obsessive fans (who frankly wouldn’t need to be demons to frighten Riley). There are also amusing name-drops for those in the entertainment industry (CAA and Impact24 PR, among them), and the film also takes a self-aware approach to its incredibly obvious Voss Water product placement.
“Smile 2” one-ups its predecessor in the quality and quantity of its gore effects. It can be genuinely disgusting at times, with body parts splattering across the screen in great detail with wet splats that the viewer really feels. Overall, “Smile 2” is a fun enough time at the theater this spooky season. If you’re looking for jump scares and lots of gore, you will find them aplenty. It’s just a shame the delivery mechanism all feels so familiar.