Smiles can be warm and friendly or wickedly fiendish. Think of Jack Nicholson in Stanley Kubrick’s modern horror classic The Shining (1980). It’s a terrifying facial expression that you can never, ever get out of your head. It brought new meaning to one of America’s most beloved nighttime show opening lines (“Heeeere’s Johnny!).
In writer/director Parker Finn’s horror films Smile (2022) and Smile 2 (2024), smiles couldn’t be more chilling. They are the unmistakable sign of demonic possession. Worse, whoever witnesses a lunatic with a ghastly smile has two choices, since they have now become the entity’s unwilling host. They can either commit murder and pass the curse along to someone else or kill themselves and drive the evil spirit out. It’s a lose/lose situation.
The original Smile set up the rules and guidelines of how evil works in this dark tale. Smile 2 picks up where the original story ended with one surviving character. It’s a jarring opening sequence done in one, continuous take. The movie wastes no time in establishing that the sequel is going to be bloodier and gorier than the first film.
What follows is a new story with new characters. Naomi Scott plays Skye Riley, a talented but scarred, young diva with a dark past who is about to embark on a grueling world tour under the management of her control freak mom. Before long, she finds herself caught up in a chain of bizarre, unexplained events that draw her deeper and deeper into her mental and emotional unraveling.
Coincidentally, Jack Nicholson's son Ray plays Skye's movie star boyfriend, with his Dad's iconically evil grin.
Smile 2 is a psychological horror film, for sure. It’s all about suspense, spiced up with some sickening special effects. Throats are slashed, eyes are stabbed out and faces are ripped off gasping, gaping skulls. There are buckets of blood.
All of this qualifies Smile 2 to be a great Halloween movie. It abounds in shocking surprises and tantalizing twists. The twists are in the form of jolting events that we later discover are only nightmarish hallucinations. It’s a device that is used repeatedly, perhaps a little too much. A large chunk of the story only happens in the mind of the main character. Well-established characters and relationships turn out to be totally imagined.
It's an upside-down world, as evidenced in the occasional aerial shots that are literally done upside down, a narrative device that was introduced in Smile. The effectiveness of it is a matter of taste as is the heavy reliance upon the aforementioned story segments that never actually happened.
One of the strengths of Smile 2 is the remarkable performance by Naomi Scott as Skye Riley. She is never off her game even when the movie struggles to establish its narrative direction. Case in point is a climactic scene at the end in a dark, dingy abandoned warehouse where Skye must make an unnerving, unimaginable choice.
It is a powerful scene that is quickly squandered when the movie, once again oscillates between reality and fantasy. It’s a major missed opportunity that had a ton of potential.
Fans of Smile will most likely embrace Smile 2. The basic story is essentially the same. The grisly gore has been cranked up for everyone who thought that the original film should have been more graphic and grotesque.
While it may not be a perfect film by any stretch, it is perfectly timed for Halloween and everyone who wants to scream a lot and occasionally . . . smile, too.
Comments