After crafting the short film “Laura Hasn’t Slept” in 2020, writer/director Parker Finn got the chance to bring his vision to the big screen with his directorial debut in the form of a sequel/expansion of that short film, 2022’s “Smile.” After the smash hit success of that film, two years later we have a sequel that retains the same creative team but shifts the focus from small town scares to a big stage and a big personality within the music and pop star industry.
The aptly titled “Smile 2” centers on Skye Riley, played by Naomi Scott (“Lemonade Mouth,” “Aladdin (2019)”), a pop star struggling with recovery from drug and alcohol addiction as well as an injury from a car accident that killed her boyfriend Paul Hudson, played by Ray Nicholson (“Panic,” “Something from Tiffany's”), before the events of the film. She’s struggling to mount a new comeback tour while facing pressure from her manager/mother Elisabeth, played by Rosemary DeWitt (“Standoff,” “Rachel Getting Married”), her assistant Joshua, played by Miles Gutierrez-Riley (“On the Come Up,” “The Wilds”), and label manager Darius, played by Raúl Castillo (“Class of '09,” “Looking”). After attempting to get painkillers from an old drug dealer friend Lewis, played by Lukas Gage (“How to Blow Up a Pipeline,” “Down Low”), she witnesses his apparent suicide and finds herself the new target of the Smile Entity, a demonic force that causes its victims to suffer hallucinations all centered around smiling before killing them a week later and moving to another subject.
As opposed to the smaller scale scares from the first film, “Smile 2” almost immediately ratchets things up. After a fantastic one-shot opening sequence, things catapult into gear with Scott’s performance. She’s fully committed to this role, diving headfirst into the insanity that follows. It’s a performance most horror actors could only dream of, progressively getting more beaten down and battered and insane as things go on. If there’s any one singular reason to watch the film (and there are many reasons to watch), it's her performance. The rest of the cast is just as game, playing their roles extremely plainly to contrast Scott’s complete de-evolution.
There’s a liveliness to the events of “Smile 2” that Finn manages to keep grounded without feeling boring. Moving away from the gray skies and cloudy grimness of the first film, “Smile 2” pops with color and vibrance, playing with its New York based setting to craft something that feels far more unsettling as a result of the juxtaposition. Returning cinematographer Charlie Sarroff (“Pink Skies Ahead,” “Night Swim”) keeps many of the effective shooting techniques from the first film, like long unbroken takes and spinning camera shots, and builds it into a look and feel that’s distinct from other modern horror film franchises. Returning composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer (“The Girl with All the Gifts,” “The White Lotus”) keeps the same unnerving musical cues from the first, updating them ever so slightly for the new pop-star focused theme, and they’re just as unsettling and unique as before.
Even if it's repeating the same basic idea as before, Finn takes the larger scale and budget afforded with this sequel and uses it to go completely bonkers. The basic premise moves away from the more routine horror plot that the first film occupied and into something far more unique with its central character and celebrity focused plot. It may be the same ideas, but these changes lead to a much different energy compared to the first film. There’s also the same heavy emphasis on practical scares and effects, just like the first film. Those practical effects coupled with the slow long takes means that, just like in the first film, even when Finn does resort to jump scares, they’re earned and far more effective than they’d otherwise be. If there are any negatives to the film, it's that the last third delves a bit too much into the Entity’s hallucinations, leading to a sense that even the audience can’t keep track of what’s real and what’s not, feeling as though Finn just wanted an excuse to change things on a dime.
“Smile 2” is the rare horror sequel that manages to be a huge improvement upon its predecessor. It keeps the same expert technical merits and practical effects from the first film and builds upon the scares and uneasiness with a fantastic lead performance from its central victim. It’s a sickly fun film that proves Finn’s first outing wasn’t a fluke and will leave any twisted horror fan with a big grim grin on their face. 4.5/5
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