Parker Finn’s original Smile captured audiences with its terrifying imagery and ingenious ad campaign. Even the original teaser trailer worked as its own short film. Though the film does live up to the scares it promises, it did feel a bit bogged down in lore and the dark subject matter. With the sequel, Finn delivers all the spooks of the first one, with a tone that feels more balanced toward excitement rather than heaviness. 

Though Smile 2 kicks off 6 days after the events of the previous film, it’s all contained within the cold open of the film. Once the title card hits the screen, it’s its own beast. That’s a touch that is rarely seen in today’s landscape of filmmaking. You do not have to watch Smile to understand Smile 2. In fact, Smile 2 works better as an introduction into the “Smile-verse”. It still takes it’s time introducing the conceit: something akin to a parasite is driving individual people insane and after seven days, they commit suicide in front of a witness, which passes on the affliction. Where the sequel prevails over the original is the character work. Instead of following a therapist who is looking to find the pattern and solving the mystery, our protagonist has a litany of struggles she has to manage on top of the parasite.

Naomi Scott stars in Paramount Pictures Presents A Temple Hill Production A Parker Finn FIlm “SMILE 2”

Today’s landscape of celebrity culture plays a big role in Smile 2. Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) is not so different from our current roster of pop stars. She’s introduced to us in the film as a recovering drug addict who, after a tragic car accident severly injures her and kills her actor boyfriend, is ready to come back into the spotlight; or is she? The stresses of being a public figure while dealing with PTSD, addiction, and parasocial fans serve as a powder keg putting her on edge at all times. It’s a compelling story to follow, even before the unseen Smile virus is introduced into her life. Skye is forced to perform after experiencing unbelievable amounts of physical and psychological trauma and the symptoms of the parasite (poignant people in her life showing up and attacking her with that signature creepy smile) feel like a supernatural representation of her misery. Her degradation calls to mind the way society treated Britney Spears in the 2000’s. 

Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) signs a fans shirt in Paramount Pictures Presents A Temple Hill Production A Parker Finn FIlm “SMILE 2”

It’s hard not to think about the way modern artists like Chappell Roan talk about what life is like for a famous person. Naomi Scott is finally getting the role she was born to play. Scott is a talented singer and dancer, which the role demands of her, but she has a perfect face for helpless screams. It’s unclear if Skye was a child star, but her mother, played so effectively by Rosemare Dewitt, is a capital S Show Mom. At first she feels like a comforting foundation for Skye’s personal life, but slowly and insidiously reveals herself to be opportunistic and unsympathetic. Dylan Guela plays Gemma, a childhood friend that Skye isolates and insults. Gemma serves as a barometer of what part of Skye actually wants to get better and what part just wants the parasite gone. Guela plays off of her panic states of emotion with dead pan quips that were always welcome. She brings a much needed comic relief with some stark “ews” replying to extremely graphic news. Gemma delivers the same level of disgust later in the film when she’s told they have to drive to Staten Island.

A word of warning: this film is NASTY! The gore and violence with the kills are not for the faint of heart, but it’s not without a robust dose of humor. Some of the most intense scenes in this film where Skye is attacked by a rabid naked fan or a mob of choreographed dancers plays on a tightrope of tension and absurdity. One recalls Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead films, down to the first film being a more self serious, cheaper guarantor and the sequel being a bigger budget remake that feels more in line with the filmmakers original intended tone. There’s gags in Smile 2 that made me laugh so hard that follow the most intense jump scares.

Ray Nicholson in Paramount Pictures Presents A Temple Hill Production A Parker Finn FIlm “SMILE 2”

With the ending of both films, it feels like writer/director Finn wrote an entire movie around a traumatizing nightmare during a depressive episode. The ending of Smile is still one of the most disturbing things I’ve witnessed in a mainstream horror film, and Smile 2 absolutely slaughters it. It’s the kind of imagery that would keep you up at night and it feels so refreshing to see that be done so effectively TWICE! Of course there are jump scares galore in this film, but the things that really crawl under your skin are the ones you’re forced to stare at and reckon with. These films don’t do that much work into explaining why the monster exists. We can just take it as an allegory for suicidal idiation without supernatural clarifications. 

4 stars out of 5

Smile 2 delivers on the promise of an nastier, bloodier, sequel, while nurturing a flawed and sympathetic character in the process. It’s certainly not for the faint of heart, but horror fans will rejoice for what feels to be the start of a wonderfully sickening series of films.