'Smile 2' is a scarily fun time

This movie put a "smile 2" on my face!

I remember watching 2022’s Smile for the first time and being surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The film looked like a lot of A24 horror shlock that often gets pumped onto Netflix for a cheap turn-your-brain-off movie. I usually watch those types of movies with my siblings — all of us sitting around on a boring Sunday afternoon getting a laugh or two out of the whole experience — finding at least something good to say about it. What really grabbed my attention was the genuine emotion radiating from the main character’s performance. Sosie Bacon’s acting in the first movie was praiseworthy and played a huge role in how captivated I was by it.

In Parker Finn’s Smile 2, the same can be said of Naomi Scott. She does an incredible job selling you on the sheer terror that her character, Skye Riley, faces. Each scream felt real. Every emotion is vivid and raw. At no point did I ever feel like she was overselling it. Her acting lends fantastic believability to the madness the smile curse inflicts upon its victims. The nightmares of her mind playing tricks on her are as real as anything happening in reality. Which becomes increasingly hard to distinguish as the curse takes hold of the main character.

Skye Riley is a major pop star trying to get her career back on track through an upcoming comeback tour. Her career has gone off the rails after struggling with drug addiction, public meltdowns, and surviving a car accident that killed her boyfriend. We join her after she’s hit rock bottom; trying to move on and revive not just her career, but herself.

Beyond Scott’s acting, what surprised me the most about Smile 2 was how humorous it managed to be. It's genuinely funny. Smile 2 brings the spooks and scares, but there are so many welcome moments of levity in the affair. One of the criticisms I have often heard about Smile was how unintentionally silly it was at times; to the detriment of the actual horror. Finn doesn’t repeat those mistakes here. Those moments are nicely inserted — acting like a pressure relief valve between periods of built-up tension. I have to give special shoutouts to Miles Gutierrez-Riley for his performance as Joshua, Skye’s flamboyant, yet clueless assistant as well as Dylan Gelula as Gemma, Skye’s estranged friend and later personal confidant. Both do a great job as the comic relief the film excels in.

Finn’s camerawork is smooth. The way his camera swivels, rotates between subjects and moves around spaces is done so quickly and gracefully. The camera reflects the distorted sense of reality that Skye faces as the curse sets in. You never quite know what is real and what isn’t. The camera literally turns upside down and you’re left wondering if we’re still in the real world or in Skye’s shattered psyche. The man’s got good craftmanship. Several set pieces were very clever; although the scene with her dance crew haunting Skye in her apartment may have been more funny than scary. I suppose no one bats a thousand.

As with the first movie there are some jumpscares, but none of them felt cheap or undeserved. I would strongly argue that many were creative. The movie doesn’t bait you, but it also doesn’t insult you. Finn has enough self-awareness to know when the audience is expecting a scare and sidesteps it. The gore in this movie is gruesome man. Plenty of blood for sure, but also some real cringe-inducing stuff. Honestly, made me stir in my seat more than The Substance. Characters stepping on glass, needles piercing skin, people’s flesh peeling and ripping. 2024 is the year of body horror, man.

All in all, if you were a fan of Smile, you’ll love Smile 2 even more. If you were so-so on the first movie I would recommend giving this one a chance. There is plenty to like in this movie and it is more than serviceable as a horror film. If you can get past some goofy set pieces and some pretty ghastly gore you’ll have a fun time watching Smile 2. While I am not able to say that it is the best horror film of 2024 what I can assert is that I believe it is worth people’s time.

Also Naomi Scott can throat VOSS water like nobody’s fucking business, holy shit.