'Smile 2' Review: An Elevated Retreading With New Themes And More Scares
‘Smile 2’ brings a lot of similar elements from the first film in Parker Finn’s chilling horror franchise, but a change of scenery and interesting new themes makes this a worthy sequel for the performances and sequences alone, even if it all feels a little familiar.
The second of the 'Smile' franchise (or what is seemingly becoming one) from Parker Finn offers much of the same from the first film but it is all elevated. The movie stars Naomi Scott who some may know Jasmine in the live action 'Aladdin' movie among other things. She portrays Skye Riley, a recovering addict pop star who is doing a comeback tour after a car crash caused her to cancel her previous tour. But after she witnesses a terrible event, she starts to unravel for all the world to see. As this unraveling happens, we don't know what reality is or isn't as it all unfolds into a big finish.
Throughout the film, we see Skye struggling with her addiction as she tries to manage the pain that is still lingering from her car accident. Also, a lot of pressure is being put on her to perform to the best of her abilities for the upcoming tour and all that comes with it. Her mother, played by Rosemarie DeWitt, is trying to help her navigate all her duties but is not giving her the proper room to breath, which already makes the movie tense without the horror element. Skye must meet all these demands while also dealing with rabid fans that don’t give her much personal space, as phones are always on her and some fans that become too comfortable with the para-social relationship that they made with her. this is a very relevant theme to the movie as the fans that cause her stress and harm are ultimately used by the Smile entity to cause her more psychological harm.
This is definitely a step up from the first one as it has much more well crafted set pieces, some pretty terrifying effects, and a killer lead who is shining throughout this whole movie. Not to mention all the killer jump scares that leave audiences on the edge of their seat from start to finish. With stellar performances from all the cast including Ray Nicholson, who you may recognize from his wide smile as the son of legendary actor Jack Nicholson. Ray plays Skye Riley’s boyfriend Paul Hudson as we mostly see him through flashbacks because he had died in a car crash with Skye but the Smile entity uses him as much as possible to get into Skye’s head and try to get control of her mind. Ray does an excellent job and I couldn’t think of a more fitting smile to put into this movie, echoing his dad’s infamous glare in ‘The Shining’.
The allure of the Smile movies is the tension building atmosphere that is created through terrifying scenes meant to leave the viewer on edge. There is a movie here where a story of addiction and the hardships of celebrity on mental health is equally terrifying, even when its mixed in with a lot of smiling monster people that jump out every two minutes. Not to say the jump scares don't work, as they do quite often, but it can be somewhat distracting to the overall plot line at points. It can be a struggle to know what the movie is really conveying when half of it is in this grey zone of not knowing what is real and what is in the protagonist’s mind.
The main issue with these movies though that will become more glaring as they continue the franchise is that the ‘Smile monster’ or demon or whatever they want to call it, is a villain that cannot be seen, cannot be hurt, and therefore cannot be stopped. This can make it tricky for a writer to keep up the same shtick when it can be a sort of “it was all a dream” situation that can lead audiences to feel that they are watching is inevitably pointless as there is no chance for them from the very beginning. Doing it once is one thing but it has now been done in both movies leading audiences on until the inevitable happens and The villain wins again, but this time, it grows even stronger because of it’s ending. That’s not to say this movie feels pointless, it has many redeeming qualities to it including its lead in Naomi Scott who puts on a hell of a performance and really shows the struggle of addiction and mental health with grace and power. Ultimately this movie will need to hope for its successors to come up with new ideas for it to stand the test of time, but for now, if you’re a looking for a good fright, this movie has all that and more to offer.