Review: 'Smile 2' is a terrifyingly fun descent into madness
Get ready to jump out of your seat thanks to nonstop paranoia in this sequel
If you're a fan of gnarly gore and nonstop horror, then buckle up – “Smile 2” is about to crawl under your skin and stay there. This one’s for the real sickos who enjoy a good jump scare mixed with a healthy dose of psychological torment.
The original “Smile” was a pleasant surprise in 2022, offering more than just the cheap thrills I was expecting. It was eerie, substantive, and genuinely unsettling. So, I went into the sequel wondering if it would follow the classic horror trap of milking the original’s success. Thankfully, “Smile 2” doesn’t ride any coattails – it builds an even bigger, badder, and bloodier world.
Picking up six days after “Smile,” the clock is ticking for Joel (Kyle Gallner) after Rose (Sosie Bacon) passed the mysterious killing curse on to him at the end of the first film. With one day left before he meets the same grisly fate, Joel is left with a choice: kill someone else in front of a witness and pass the curse to them, or let the demon force you to kill yourself in front of a witness… and still pass the curse on to them.
Joel takes action (no spoilers on his choice!), but ultimately the curse is passed to Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), a global pop star about to embark on a comeback tour. After a year out of the spotlight recovering from an intoxicated joyride that left her boyfriend dead and herself critically injured, Skye’s tour is the perfect chance to repair her public perception. That is… until she starts questioning her reality and breaking down left and right thanks to the smiles she’s seeing at every turn.
First things first, Naomi Scott is an absolute force as Skye Riley. Scott radiates pure dread, and the anxiety builds so intensely that you can’t help but feel like you're spiraling into madness right alongside her. Scott’s performance is nothing short of brilliant, using subtle body language, freaked-out facial expressions, and raw, unhinged dialogue to make Skye’s descent into paranoia all the more believable. Beyond the major freak outs, Scott also thrives in the smaller, more intimate moments as she grapples with her circumstances – be it substance abuse, trauma, her relationships, or the curse itself.
“Smile 2” hits all the horror notes you want, and thankfully, it avoids falling into the trap of lazy, over-the-top jump scares. The jump scares are still there, and they’re expertly executed – just enough to leave you spazzing in your seat – but not so much that you feel like you’re just watching cheap thrills. The real MVP here is the atmospheric dread and constant paranoia. The movie knows how to mess with you, lulling you into a false sense of security with some slick pop tunes or sentimental moments, only to hit you with something that makes you want to crawl out of your skin. The anxiety is only further enhanced by the wide, lingering camera shots that will keep you on edge, scanning the screen for something – anything – that could be lurking just out of frame. It’s that kind of tension-building that keeps your heart racing throughout the movie. The gore in “Smile 2” isn’t quite as in-your-face as the first, but there’s plenty of disgusting, squirm-worthy body horror to go around, and it’s still wonderfully gnarly.
The only real knock on “Smile 2” is that it lingers a bit too long getting started. As mentioned before, we all know the rules of the Smile-verse at this point, but the characters don’t, so we spend the first hour-plus witnessing Skye’s slow-motion crash into paranoia. By the time Skye begins to investigate the curse and the real action kicks in, you're already an hour and twenty minutes deep. Another small but easily overlooked letdown comes when the film does reuse one of its predecessors’ big twists – there’s another fake phone call reveal. It felt a bit tired this time around, thinking surely it won’t be the same twist, but… it was. Luckily, there are more twists in store afterwards to still keep things fresh.
The backdrop of the pop star world adds a cool twist, especially in a time where we’ve all been living through the real-life Eras Tour phenomenon. The film touches on toxic fandom and the capitalistic grind of the music industry, though it doesn’t dive too deep into these themes. It’s a horror flick at heart, not a deep dive into social commentary, so while the messages may not be subtle, they still don’t really do more than scratch the surface of the industry’s issues. Still, it’s refreshing to see “Smile 2” raise the stakes and expand the world in a way that’s different from the original.
There’s also a surprising amount of humor, which works in an oddly effective way. I mean, the whole premise of a cursed, creepy smile? It’s uncomfortable, sure, but there’s something hilariously weird about it, too. It brings a little levity to the otherwise relentless fear.
“Smile 2” isn’t the next horror masterpiece, but it never needed to be. It’s a fun, spine-tingling ride that delivers on both scares and storytelling, building on an already successful start. At this rate, the “Smile” franchise is shaping up to be one of the more promising horror series these days, and I’m already looking forward to seeing where this cursed, creepy grin takes us next.
Star Rating: 3.5 out of 5
“Smile 2” releases in theaters October 18.