The sweet ânâ snuggly Smile Guy Monster is back in Smile 2 (now streaming on Paramount+, in addition to VOD services like Amazon Prime Video), the sequel to 2022 hit horror flick Smile. Our ever-lovinâ blood-covered skin-who-needs-stinkinâ-skin? beast is one of three holdovers from the first movie: Kyle Gallner returns briefly to reprise his role as the guy who inherited the âsmile curse,â and writer/director Parker Finn returns behind the camera to hopefully push the concept forward (before he remakes Zulawskiâs Possession, which, for my nickel, is a bad idea since the movie should remain in its current, pure, perfect form). The first Smile was a $200 million-grossing hit, with the sequel returning a very good $131 million â and, surprisingly, improving upon the originalâs traumacore themes.
SMILE 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: We need a brief recap here: Youâll recall that the âsmile curseâ infects a poor soul who hallucinates awful, awful stuff until they go insane and kill themselves in front of another person, who is then doomed to bear the curse. Thereâs also a monster involved in this, because without it, youâre just talking about Invisible Shit, and Invisible Shit sucks. Invisible Shit needs a horrific manifestation so it can become a meme and/or a recurring nightmare for people bothered by such things. Youâll also recall how the star of the first movie, Sosie Bacon, passed on the curse to Kyle Gallnerâs character, who turns up in the cold open of Smile 2, hoping to hot-potato his new problem to a murderer who deserves the suffering. It sorta doesnât go as planned, but suffice to say, the curse lands on Lewis (Lukas Gage), a small-time drug dealer whoâs now doomed, I tell you, doooooooooooooooooomed.
Then wham, weâre hit with a very Alfred Hitchcock title card. Now we meet Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), an uberfamous pop singer staging a comeback. A year ago, she was in the middle of a tour and using drugs like mad when she and her boyfriend were in an awful car wreck. He died and she has a few scars, one of which is shaped like a thing thatâs shaped like a crescent. You know what that thing is. Yes. Itâs on your face when youâre happy. Skyeâs rehab began in rehab for her injuries and rehab for the drugs and now sheâs on Drew Barrymoreâs talk show sharing how sheâs OK now and ready to get back on stage. EVERYTHING IS FINE HERE. I SWEAR. PINKY PROMISE ON MY CROSSED HEART AND SOMEONEâS MOTHERâS GRAVE.
Except the musical score very much suggests otherwise, because of course it does. Before we get to the sinister supernatural turn of events that involves Skye battling for her life against a metaphor, letâs illustrate her situation a bit. She seems contrite and earnest, but thereâs a lingering sense that being a rich and famous pop star isnât all itâs cracked up to be. The press had a field day in the wake of her catastrophe. She had a major falling-out with her bestie Gemmie (Dylan Gelula). Her mother Elizabeth (Rosemarie DeWitt) is also her manager, and weâre left wondering if Elizabeth is more invested in the state of her daughterâs career than the state of her daughterâs mental well-being. And her back still hurts but she canât get any decent painkillers so she goes to â you got it â Lewis for a coupla vicodin. What happens is gruesome and gory, and now Skye is stuck with it. The curse. The metaphor. The inevitable sight of the Smile Guy Monster, splortching ever so closer to her. Good thing heâs lotsa fun at parties.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: What weâve got here is the examination of fame that Vox Lux and Her Smell gave us, crossed with It Follows, which the Smiles are rather heavily indebted to. 2024 has also been a big year for pop stars in peril (see: Trap).
Performance Worth Watching: You may remember Scott from 2017âs Power Rangers and the live-action remake of Aladdin, but here, she ventures way out on a limb and goes gonzo as her character loses her mind down a deep, dark well.
Memorable Dialogue: âDoes vomit have DNA?â â what Skye Googles after Lewis murders himself in very gross fashion and she pukes on the floor and runs off without calling the cops
Sex and Skin: Brief full-frontal male in dim lighting.
Our Take: Iâm slightly torn: Jump-scare movies like this should never push past the two-hour mark. But Finn also makes sure thereâs more going on here than just cheep thrillz â which pushes Smile 2 into an aesthetic-thematic gray area between commercial and arthouse horror sensibilities. The first half of the film tests our patience somewhat, developing character in a repetitive and overly familiar manner; Skyeâs Behind the Music backstory is nothing we havenât seen before dozens of times, and the same goes for the psychotic-infection horror concept. But when the film fully integrates the two ideas and gets on track, it opens the door for Finn to stage a few inspired set pieces, and for Scott to lean heavily into her characterâs growing derangement, and push past the usual final girl fodder into bleak comedy.
Finn wisely evolves the primary metaphor of the first film from basic trauma to the more specific assertion that fame can be a curse: We watch sadly as Skye compromises herself for her career, putting herself into potentially unsafe situations with obsessive fans during a meet-and-greet, working on elaborate and demanding dance choreography despite chronic physical pain and generally pushing herself more than she should so soon after a scarring experience. And all this occurs at the behest of her mother, which adds another dense layer of psychological stress on her.
The hallucination component of the curse is bothersome in the Smile movies â itâs too transparent a mechanism to routinely pull the rug out from under us. Itâs also one of those plots where a character inevitably sits down for an I-know-what-Iâm-about-to-say-sounds-completely-insane conversations, and thereâs a couple of those here. But itâs easy to appreciate how Finnâs also playing around in meta-textual territory, making us realize how we react to the most deviant sights of an effective horror movie: with a big, demented grin.
Finn is a filmmaker who has a vision within the jump-scare formula, integrating thoughtful ideas into it and supporting them with strong, confident visual acumen. He sometimes struggles to even out the tone, which can be dead-serious until we see someone bearing the filmsâ signature rictus that reminds us of how silly the concept is, and nudges us to interpret the movie as satire (of harried extrapolations on the trappings of fame, and perhaps of the horror-moviegoing experience itself). Finn also knows how to stage and execute a memorable climax; in the first film, it was the monster reveal, but in the sequel, he tops it in a wholly satisfying way. The punchline inspires a big, big laugh, and youâll walk away with an image seared in your mind and a good taste in your mouth.
Our Call: Smile 2 is likely to put the thing from the title of the movie on your face. STREAM IT.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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