Smile 2 Will Leave Your Mouth Open One Way or Another

The latest horror sequel had me grinning from start to finish

Happy Halloween! I’ve got quite the treat for you today in the form of yet another film review. I know, I can hear you roll your eyes from here, but I guess that’s what you signed up for (thank you). Rest assured that there will be a bit of a break from these over the next month while I watch some throwback screenings at my local indie theatre, at least until I get around to seeing the highly-anticipated Heretic.

On that note, it’s been a great year for horror, hasn’t it? Particularly with the calibre of some of the awaited sequels that have dropped already. Big titles like A Quiet Place: Day One, MaXXXine, Alien: Romulus, and, most surprisingly, Terrifier 3 have swept the box office. However, my favourite so far is Smile 2, a continuation of the 2020 psychological nail-biter Smile. Once again written and directed by Parker Finn, the film stars an utterly convincing Naomi Scott as pop sensation Skye Riley alongside her overbearing mother and manager Elizabeth, played by Rosemarie DeWitt.

The relatively unknown cast, comprised of Lukas Gage, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Dylan Gelula, Peter Jacobson, and Ray Nicholson, with a cameo by Drew Barrymore as herself, is exceptional. While Scott absolutely steals the show, each character is unique and believable, delivering vehement performances inspired by the roles of Caitlin Stacey and Rob Morgan in the original. In fact, word of mouth must have travelled so quickly that, after being released just two weeks ago, Smile 2 has already more than tripled its budget.

Described as a supernatural infection passed between victims by witnessing a traumatic death, Skye is given a curse that presents itself as a mute grinning person before committing suicide in the most violent way possible. One of my favourite aspects of this chilling series is that the creepy smiles of the possessed characters are never digitally altered. The plot follows this dark tragedy befalling a global superstar, not all that different from the context of M. Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller Trap (2024). In an age of detached idolisation, I like this new era of filmmaking that explores the idea of a personal crisis in the public eye. It carries the message that death comes for us all, even the untouchable people we worship through a screen.

Before the opening credits, there’s a photosensitivity warning possibly inspired by the obnoxious title card of its predecessor. I don’t think I’ve seen this in a feature film before, and I would have thought a written disclaimer of its touchy themes would be more appropriate, but it subconsciously reminds you that you’re watching this in 2024. Make no mistake, this is not a sensitive movie. Smile 2 picks up six days from where the first one left off, with a riveting first scene that is not for the faint of heart. What’s more, the entire sequence is a single tracking shot, with a chaotic conclusion offering a subtle callback to the original. It just might be one of my favourite openings to a film, ever.

Scott serves as an unreliable narrator who steadily goes insane as she questions her own reality. I love how they depict her losing time, blurring days and confusing what did and didn’t happen. You know when you have a nap then wake up disoriented in the dark and panic that you’ve slept until tomorrow? Well, imagine that happening every time you close your eyes and that’s pretty much the world that Skye Riley is living in. Though she has a complicated history, she is incredibly alone in what is objectively the peak of her career and personal health journey, allowing the audience to sympathise with her. Underneath the metaphorical layers of shared trauma, it’s a cautionary tale of how having success and nobody to share it with is worthless, which puts us all in the same boat.

Skye is about to embark on her first tour after a near-fatal car accident that killed her abusive ex-boyfriend, a famous actor who abetted her past drug addiction. The event left her with a gnarly scar along her stomach that fuels her self-loathing, though constantly reminds her that she has a second lease on life. When the entity isn’t around, much of the film’s tension comes from the toxic relationship with her mother. While Elizabeth is mild-mannered and seemingly supportive, she barely gives Skye a break, who begins to doubt that she is ready for a tour, and is always working with business in mind. When Skye finally snaps at her and Elizabeth defends herself for the first time, it makes you wonder if her intentions are in fact pure (I think they are).

The bleak tone induces a lot of anxiety and dread, some of the more effective means of scaring people in cinema these days. Nothing leaves you squirming in your seat like sheer helplessness and practical gore. Throughout the film, Skye rips her hair out in chunks when she’s anxious, akin to protagonist Rose biting her fingernails until she draws blood in the first film. She also gulps down entire bottles of VOSS water in a single sitting, on multiple occasions, as a positive distraction whenever she feels the urge to drink or do drugs. This ironically results in an allegory for overindulgence, since even ingesting too much water can kill you. With the amount of product placement, I wouldn’t be surprised if they sponsored the film.

Suspense is maintained to the point of agony in a number of scenes, particularly when showing silhouettes in the dark à la Ari Aster’s Hereditary (2018). The most memorable is when Skye is home alone in her penthouse apartment one night and finds a naked, crazed, adult male fan at the end of the hall. That shit is terrifying, and I love it. Smile 2 possesses the same visual style as the first film, with inverted establishing shots, tracking shots through thresholds, and uncomfortably long close-ups of characters’ faces. There were a few homages to the original, which are bound to happen given that it’s a sequel, although it seemed derivative at times. Body parts were going inside and coming out of places that they shouldn’t be able to and all the jump scares got me, so it’s a very visceral experience.

The grand finale is quite the spectacle, similar to The Substance (2024), and will either leave you shocked and appalled or refraining from applauding. One thing is for sure: If there’s another sequel in the works, the stakes will be huge. I know I’ve made plenty of references to other horrors in this review, but trust me when I say that Smile 2 stands out from the rest. It’s daring, provocative and, best of all, a lot of sick fun. Bravo, Mr Finn. Bravo.