Film Review: Smile 2

Smile 2
Director: Parker Finn
Paramount Pictures, Paramount Players, Temple Hill Entertainment
In Theaters: 10.18

The year is 2024, the wasteland is barren. Horror movie fans, critics and casual viewers crawl across the deserted land, begging the minds of Hollywood to give them an iconic and bloodthirst-quenching sleeper hit that’ll satisfy their undying craving for  blood, guts and trauma. What did Hollywood give this poor, thirsty little bunch? Smile 2. 

Smile 2 takes place six days after the events of the first film. Pop sensation Skye Riley (Naomi Scott, Aladdin) is about to embark on a massive world tour following a stint in the hospital after a horrific car crash that took the life of her actor boyfriend Paul Hudson (Ray Nicholson, Licorice Pizza). With the massive pressure of press, the tour and her back pain—that she can no longer be medicated for due to her history of substance abuse—Skye decides to call her dealer Lewis (Lukas Gage, The White Lotus) to get Vicodin. Following a series of erratic behaviors, Lewis kills himself in his apartment in front of Skye, leaving her as the new host for the smile curse/entity. 

Smile 2 is, on a lot of technical levels, a decently made film. There’s interesting and creative cinematography, actors (especially Scott) giving their all and halfway decent writing. The ideas and themes that Finn plays with are interesting (mental illness represented through the smile entity), though they aren’t fully realized or used to the film’s advantage. Towards the end, the film also breaks the rules that the first and second movie established for the entity. This leads to an ending that is a little silly, especially with the film’s poor combination of practical effects and VFX that pale in comparison to the first film’s practical work (I’m forever obsessed with that video of the puppet made for Smile).

While this might be a hot take, I saw a lot of potential in the first Smile film. I liked its kind of controversial, nihilistic ending in terms of the mental illness/smile entity. It’s a hard truth that not all people make it out of that situation and it isn’t nearly talked about, or decently portrayed, enough. It’s almost refreshing. However, as I previously mentioned, the film somewhat sabotages itself by putting so much effort into a greatly clever setup, meaning its energy is spent up by the time the ending rolls around, leading to something that feels lackluster. 

All that being said, it was certainly an entertaining watch, with clever jump scares that got audience members to physically jump, tension-cutting jokes that got chuckles, some cringey, memorable dialogue that had people wincing and a cameo from that dreamboat Kyle Gallner (Dinner in America). It also had a little dose of humorously obvious product placement. A memorably unmemorable little flick. I can’t wait to see where Parker Finn’s potential as a filmmaker takes him, especially outside of the Smile franchise, as he obviously has what it takes to be a memorable contributor to film. Whatever that is, maybe one day Finn will quench horror fans’ undying thirst and give his film the ending it deserves. –Yonni Uribe

Read more spooky reviews this Halloween season:
Film Review: Terrifier 3
Film Review: The Substance