Smile 2

Grade: B

I was not optimistic about the prospect of a Smile sequel. I wondered what they could do with it, other than “the same stuff happens again, just with different people.” I underestimated writer/director Parker Finn. He has new things to say, new ways to say what he’s said before, and I’m adding my voice to the chorus of those who liked Smile 2 better than the first.

I will recap the premise, if you didn’t know. A person witnesses someone taking their life, while having an unnatural horrific smile on their face. For the next week, whoever saw that will be terrorized by hallucinations of that same kind of smile, and after about 7 days, they will be possessed by the smile demon and kill themselves in front of someone, with the same facial expression. And the person witnessing that one will do the same thing, and pass it on. It’s a chain.

Two years ago, I took Smile to task for all the upside down camera shots. There are plenty of them here, too, which makes me think Finn is establishing a new tradition that we just need to get used to. You have to admire that. After all, in the early 1960s, there was a folk musician with an annoying nasal voice who wore some kind of head gear contraption to hold his harmonica. That must have been extremely odd at first, but now we know it as just the thing Bob Dylan would do. I guess Parker Finn will be known as the upside down shot guy. Somebody had to do it first.

He’s also, so far, had a pattern of casting children of well-known actors in his movies. Sosie Bacon (Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick’s daughter) starred in Smile, and in Smile 2, we have Jack Nicholson’s son Ray Nicholson. He’s got a creepy smile. However, the primary character is another talented actress. Naomi Scott (Princess Jasmine from 2019’s live action Aladdin) stars as Skye Riley, a super famous, super successful Taylor Swift-like pop star. She is about to embark on a big comeback tour, her first since an alcohol and drug-fueled car crash a year prior, that killed her boyfriend (Nicholson, who we only see in flashbacks and hallucinations). She is sober, but still has some physical pain. She stops at her old dealer’s apartment for some Vicodin, and it turns out he’s a week into the smile monster doing its smile monstery thing. She sees his suicide, which makes her next.

There’s a certain macabre humor with the gore. He beats himself to death with a large round heavy gym weight. The laughs come when every time he lowers the weight from his head, and we wonder what his face will look like this time – or if it will even look like a face anymore. I can’t praise Naomi Scott enough; her eyes are so expressive. This must have been an exhausting role to play. She screams, cries, bleeds, snots, sings, dances, hyperventilates, and otherwise is put through the physical and emotional wringer. I hope she had a shower and a nice meal at the end of each shooting day.

Smile (2022) was a metaphor for trauma. Smile 2 expands the themes into explorations of fame, and its various downfalls/pressures. Finn has fun placing jump scares in unexpected places. There’s a sequence that could be described as a Smile Ballet. It must have taken a long time to stage. I’ve tried to make the trademark smile. I lasted a maximum of 30 seconds. It’s harder than you think.

I simultaneously loved the ending and had a lot of confusion regarding the logistics. How much of what we saw can we trust? How did they go from where they just were to where the last scene takes place? What’s real? Is the last bit real? I hope so. All I know is that once I realized where the final few moments were going, I was doing the S word for sure. It’s an awesome mic drop. If there is a Smile 3 (and this is the most eager I’ve been for one), I hope it has the courage to continue from where we leave off here, and follow through with the seed that’s been planted.

Grade: B