The second entry in Parker Finn’s Smile series, Smile 2, has arrived. While this sequel elevates the stakes, it often falls into the same problems as its predecessor. Read our full review of Smile 2.
After the breakout success of Smile, due in part to a fantastic viral marketing campaign that rivaled that of Cloverfield, it seemed like a no-brainer to follow up with a sequel. This time we follow Skye Riley, a world renowned pop star who is about to embark on a world tour just one year after getting into a wreck that took the life of her then boyfriend. Unfortunately for her, she is about to receive the same cursed demonic entity we were introduced to in the last film.
Right off the bat, Naomi Scott gives an excellent performance as Skye. The unraveling of Skye Riley’s mind is a fascinatingly disturbing thing to watch and you can feel like you are going crazy with her, unable to distinguish reality from unreality till the very end. Most of the other characters however are written pretty one-note and had performances that served the story well enough. Miles Gutierrez-Riley as Skye’s assistant Joshua might be one of the only memorable side-characters, mostly in part because he serves as a comedic relief.
Most of the cinematography in the film was pleasant, though seeing an upside-down establishing shot of a building in NYC can get a bit dull after the 4th or 5th go-around. Cristobal Tapia de Veer’s score for the film was perfectly eerie, one repeated track in particular almost sounded like a song slowly playing in reverse and whenever that started it’d always be unnerving.
Story-wise, the film feels too similar to the first, while also simultaneously straying too far from the original rules established by the universe. This go around, the demon that makes you see smiling people gets a massive upgrade, instead of simply driving the protagonist mad via the visions of the smiling, the demon seems to have control over how Skye interprets all reality, often just fabricating events entirely. In most cases giving the villain a bit of an upgrade can make for some interesting new dynamics, but here I feel as though it strays too far from the original concept for the worse. The most egregious example in this film is the rug pull at the end, prior to the twist I was actually interested in the more interesting direction the story was moving, until the real ending became the same one I predicted on the drive over to the theater.
Most horror films nowadays work in the same way, music cuts out, hold on shot, loud noise jumpscare, repeat. Smile 2 is no exception. Often I found the movie not scary due to the predictability of it all. There was one exception to this though with a sequence involving a lot of the smilers descending upon Skye like weeping angels from Doctor Who, definitely the stand-out of the film.
Overall, if you are into the first Smile and any other horror film like it, you will probably have a fun time at the theaters. I’d personally recommend it for Naomi Scott’s performance if nothing else.
Smile 2 is directed by Parker Finn and stars Naomi Scott, Kyle Gallner, Rosemarie DeWitt, Lukas Gage, and Miles Gutiérrez-Riley. The film is produced by Paramount Pictures and is now in theaters.
If you liked this review of Smile 2 be sure to check out more here at Feature First. Thanks for reading!
