Smile 2 is the sequel to the surprise horror hit from 2022 about a demonic entity that causes people a ghastly grin before they die.
This sequel one-ups the franchise by taking its characters in some familiar directions, but it also adds enough fresh elements to make it worth seeing. It’s wilder and bloodier than the original.
The movie picks up six days after the events of the first film, with the character of Joel (Kyle Gallner) attempting to get rid of the Smile Entity curse by passing it on to a group of criminals. One of them gets the curse unwittingly transposed onto them.
Naomi Scott plays Pop singer Skye Riley, who’s staging a big comeback after a car accident took the life of her boyfriend and she spiraled into drug use. She purchases Vicodin for her back from the criminal who has the Smile Entity and, well, she’s cursed now.
Skye begins seeing bizarre hallucinations, which manage to freak out her entire entourage as well as her manager’s mother. They think she’s having a psychotic episode instead of believing anything she says. If they did, we wouldn’t have a movie.
Writer/director Parker Finn comes up with new ways to expand the premise in ways that are not just about shock value, but rather, he gives us a story that manages to stay afloat.
The scares don’t necessarily rely on anything cheap or tacky. Rather, they’re inventive, refreshing, and skillful. However, there is a moment or two where we experience a dream fake out, which is frustrating.
Perhaps the movie’s biggest weakness is that it gets jumbled toward the climax when Naomi meets a nurse who says he can get rid of the curse. The process slows the movie down for the obligatory exposition on how it can be eliminated. Once that’s out of the way, the movie is full speed ahead until it reaches its mind-blowing finale.
Smile 2 may be a stepping stone to a third entry and if it continues to go down this path, I’ll have no problem smiling.
Grade: B+
(Rated R for strong bloody violent content, grisly images, language throughout and drug use.)
