Euronews Culture's Film of the Week: 'Smile 2' - A bigger, scarier, superior sequel

Halloween is around the corner and smiles are everywhere this year. 

Joining the traditional carved pumpkin grins are two gurning politicians electioneering as the 5 November nears closer, as well as the sinister beams from Terrifier 3** ’s Art The Clown, who has decimated Joker: Folie à Deux’**s box-office prospects. So now feels the ideal time for a sequel to 2022’s supernatural horror flick Smile.

Writer-director Parker Finn returns with his derivative but anxiety-inducing premise: a parasitic demon that grins from ear to ear drives its victims to suicide. The entity feeds on an individual’s trauma, and gets passed on when a death is witnessed. No one lasts longer than a week, before this The Ring / Fallen / It Follows daisy-chain from hell perpetuates.

Our protagonist this time is Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), a pop star on the comeback trail. She has taken a year out following a near-fatal car crash in which her boyfriend Paul (Ray Nicholson) was killed. The accident left her badly injured and led to a pesky drug addiction. Now sober and encouraged by her manager and mother Elizabeth (Rosemarie DeWitt), Skye rehearses for her upcoming shows but finds herself in need of some Vicodin for her back pain. She contacts her former dealer Lewis (Lukas Gage), who suddenly breaks out a disquieting grin before transforming his head into a hamburger patty with the help of a gym weight.

There are far better ways to go.

It’s not long before that disturbing smile starts haunting Skye, who witnessed Lewis’ death... How can she escape her toothy tormentors and convince those around her that her hallucinations forecast a very gruesome fate? 

Smile 2 is not the scariest movie of the year. Nor is it this year’s best horror film as many are trumpeting – that title is still a two-way race between The Substance and Oddity.  

This sequel drags on for too long and the jump scares, while effective, become rather predictable as the runtime progresses. As for returning DP Charlie Sarroff’s repeated upside-down camera shots that telegraph that things are taking a turn for the strange (Get it, because it’s upside-down, so something must be topsy-turvy in Skye’s world...), it’s overused and gets weak real quick. 

However, for all those faults, Smile 2 works.  

Bolstered by a bigger budget, Finn gets creative and crafts a handful of ingenious set pieces – the standout being a grinning dance troupe advancing on Skye, like a demonic flash mob inspired by two Bobs: American choreographer Fosse and Twin Peaks’ furniture-straddling inhabiting spirit. It’s a knockout scene and shows that the director was not interested in phoning in a cash-grab follow-up.

The sequel also leans into humour a lot more than the original – a nice touch which toys with the audience. Just as you’re letting your guard down, a well-timed jolt reminds you that horror and humour make perfect bedfellows.

Is the effect cheap? As chips. 

Do you jump out of your skin? Repeatedly.

The main reason why Smile 2 is such a pleasant surprise is Naomi Scott.  

Audiences will be familiar with her work in 2017’s better-than-it-had-any-right-to-be Power Rangers, as Jasmine in the live-action remake of Aladdin, and as the best thing about the dire Charlie’s Angels reboot. However, Smile 2 truly shows she is more than capable of carrying a film and elevating it with a performance that surpasses some of the material she's saddled with.

While the film never meaningfully delves into trauma and mental health issues, it manages to give audiences an emotional lynchpin through Scott’s go-for-broke turn. And it’s thanks to her that Smile 2 just about manages to say something about the unrealistic pressures of fame, as Skye has to perform on demand despite the toll it takes.

“Lights, camera, bitch, smile / Even when you wanna die,” as one fellow pop star recently (and rather fittingly) put it.

Again, not that Smile 2 bogs itself down with too many subtleties when it comes to critiquing the entertainment industry or toxic fandom. Much like the original film, it remains a convoluted good time, especially if you’re in the mood for uneasy build-ups, some genuinely gruesome beats (anyone who winces at the thought of IVs is encouraged to take a deep breath) and a bloody Grand Guignol finale that recalls a similar energy as the last act of The Substance.

Coralie Fargeat’s Cannes-winner may be the superior horror film, and definitely one to prioritise this Halloween. That said, this horror romp Pt.2 has made Smile 3 something to, well, smile about.

Smile 2 is out now.