Smile 2 – REVIEW

Naomi Scott in Smile 2


It’s not too often that we get a major glow-up for a practically immediate horror sequel, maybe outside of the Saw movies. The original Smile, which was released back in 2022, was a massive surprise for me. It looked like a really corny Truth or Dare-adjacent cheap jumpscare horror, a comparison that became even more apparent when it was supposed to be a Paramount+ original that got sent to theaters due to positive test screenings. However, it was a genuinely bleak, atmospheric, and straight up terrifying look into how traumatic events can twist and bend a person so out of shape that they may never return to who they were before. It was a pretty impressive outing for a streaming movie, especially as a debut feature from writer/director Parker Finn. That being said, it’s certainly one of those movies where you stare at the blank screen for a good 20 minutes, just processing what you have just seen. Sosie Bacon made for a great lead in that movie, but we’ve got almost a new cast for Smile 2. Naomi Scott plays Skye Riley, a pop star who becomes tormented by an entity that simply just loves to torture tortured people. I’m not going to go in-depth to explain the lore of the creature, but it really does just love to feed off the trauma of people. It’s not a lost spirit or anything like that, it just loves to fuck with people. It’s a fun twist on something by not really doing a twist. Either way, there’s a very good analogy for the leap from Smile to Smile 2. It’s like Finn pulling a James Cameron when he pitched the sequel to Alien. If you don’t know, Cameron came into the boardroom, wrote Alien on a white board, then added a dollar sign to make Alien$. Smile 2 is basically $mile. Even as someone who adored the first, Smile 2 is an upgrade in nearly every way. Scott is jaw-dropping here, giving one of my favorite performances of the year as Skye, the pop star with her life crumbling all around her even before the entity latches itself onto her. I also liked Lukas Gage in his small but pivotal role and Kyle Gallner makes the most of his appearance in the movie’s fantastic opening scene. Smile 2 is also my pick for the scariest movie of the year. The more I’ve thought about it, the more it’s felt that way. There are more jumpscares here, but they either have a nightmarish image with it or it’s incredibly well-timed. Sometimes, it’s even both. The only downside I have is mainly a personal one. Unlike the first Smile, there really is no sense of hope or even a glimmer of it that Skye will survive. Like how oppressive the Smile demon is in both films, this thing puts you through the wringer, both mentally and emotionally. I was still rooting for her to make it out alive, but as the movie went on, it just drained me with gut punch after gut punch after gut punch. I really regret not being able to catch this in a theater or even just watch it earlier because this is high up in my favorite movies of 2024. Just make sure you get all of your errands done before you watch Smile 2, since you’ll probably just stare at the blank screen for 20 minutes in shock.


Ryan’s Grade: A