Film review and film summary for “Smile 2” (2024)

There's been a habit this year of sequels in films like “Inside Out 2” and “Terrifier 3” being little more than “rinse and repeat” of their predecessors. (I bet this is the first time Art and Joy have been compared. You're welcome.) One of several things that works about Parker Finn's “Smile 2” is that it feels like an attempt to use the ideas of the successful first film from simply repeating it. While that film fell into a subgenre of horror films that use mental illness as a supernatural force, Finn's sharp follow-up tackles things like self-hatred, addiction and even the commercialization of pop stars. They definitely have one thing in common: the outstanding central performance. Sosie Bacon was the MVP of the first Smile and Naomi Scott is simply phenomenal in the superior sequel, which endures two hours of emotional and physical duress for your entertainment. A bit like a pop star.

Much like its most obvious inspiration, “It Follows,” “Smile 2” re-explores the idea of ​​a person rather than a place being haunted. Finn's film begins with the fate of a character from the first film, Kyle Gallner's Joel, who must pass his curse on to someone else and, in a well-shot scene of violent mayhem, chooses a drug dealer as his victim. An unplanned visitor named Lewis (Lukas Gage) ends up witnessing the massacre and is infested by what can only be described as a parasite, something that feeds on your insecurities and trauma, giving you increasingly horrific visions, often of people, who you know and know I love doing absolutely terrible things with a smile on my face.

It's not long before Lewis smashes his face into bloody pieces with a heavy weight in front of pop star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), who is planning a comeback after spending a year recovering from a car accident that killed her boyfriend Paul was killed. In flashbacks and haunted films, Paul is played by none other than Ray Nicholson, who nailed the malevolent head-down smile that his father Jack made so famous and which supposedly inspired this flick. You know the look.

Skye has put her addiction and grief behind her, but the “Smile Creature” uses all her insecurities and weaknesses against her to slowly drive her mad. Her mother and manager Elizabeth (Rosemarie DeWitt), her assistant Josh (Miles Gutierrez-Riley) and record company boss Darius (Raul Castillo) are ready for Skye's comeback, but her increasingly fragile mental state makes it impossible. Skye tries to reunite with an old friend named Gemma (Dylan Gelula), someone she thinks she can trust, but “Smile 2” isn't just about haunting experience, it's about cruelty. It's about being pushed to the mental limit in ways that are physically and emotionally unimaginable. Whether she believes she sees a murderous, naked fan in her apartment or a vision of the dead Paul in the audience at a fundraiser, Skye sees reality shattering before her eyes.

It's one hell of a role for an actress to play, and Scott really does a great job of conveying the horror and fear that has gripped Skye's life. Finn demands a lot from his leading lady, putting her through physical and emotional stress, and it's very important that Scott commits to every beat. We believe what is happening around them because we believe their horrified reaction to it. The excellent sound design is close, but it's really the key to this film's success.

To be fair, “Smile 2” does lose some of its many thematic themes about how fans feel like they own pop stars and how so many of them are asked to bury their trauma and just smile, but enough remains in the foundation of the piece to get it over the finish line. With that in mind, there's no reason a horror sequel should last longer than two hours, but that's more because Finn has so many possibilities he wants to explore with his concept than any sense of bloat slack or the fullness of the narrative. I was never bored and there are some really standout sequences here, particularly one that could be called “Smile Dancers” which is one of the best in the genre this year in concept and execution.

I have a general aversion to films that use mental illness as a cheap horror tool (for example, the hated “Lights Out”), and what strikes me most about these films is the way Finn avoids these exploitative traps, by focusing so intensely on the emotional truth of his heroines. Yes, there are a few too many jump scares and at least one too many twists, but it's all forgivable when you consider the true terror in Naomi Scott's eyes. Finn loves faces, those distorted by evil and those shattered with fear. Even more than after the first film, I'm excited to see what he does next and more confident that it won't just stay that way.