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Plot Summary: About to embark on a world tour, global pop sensation Skye Riley begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events. Overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and the pressures of fame, Skye is forced to face her past.

Director: Parker Finn

Writer: Parker Finn

Runtime: 2 hours 7 mins

• Naomi Scott as Skye Riley
• Rosemarie DeWitt as Elizabeth Riley
• Lukas Gage as Lewis

Review by: Samuel

What I Liked:

This was better than first in one key aspect, and that is the characters. The two main characters we followed in the original were very stupid. I know it’s a horror movie and characters are often dumb, but this one felt more down to Earth in its tone so you expect the characters to act more like real people would and both main characters (one an academic and the other a cop) both made baffling choices that had me physically folding my arms in annoyance. More egregious though- the characters were very boring. I did not enjoy watching them on screen.

 Smile 2 steps it up BIG TIME. The main character Skye (Played brilliantly by Naomi Scott) is more fun, more relatable, more interesting, and more sympathetic. She is a pop star who has been through some trauma and is visibly carrying it with her as she prepares for a comeback music tour. Skye as a character alone held my interest outside of the fact that she is now the one being possessed by this parasitic smiling demon this time around. In fact, for the first hour or so Sky is unaware of what is happening to her. We who saw the first movie know,  but Skye is completely oblivious and chalks up her weird hallucinations to the fact that she had gone through a horrible accident that has left her mentally scarred. Combine that with her controlling, family. Controlling record label, and broken friendships and you have a character that is genuinely interesting to watch in her own right. An hour is a long time for a movie not to have its main character catch up to the plot, but the fact that I was still with Skye and could totally buy her reasoning says a lot about her characterization. It also says a lot about the narrative and this time around that’s also improved. 

Because we have the background of the first film, this sequel can just jump straight in and deliver more of the crazy, creepy, and heart pounding scenes. It begins excellently with a tense scene that takes place directly after the first film and the movie doesn’t really have many (if any) slow moments after that- even when it’s more focused on Skye’s life in the music industry. 

The scars in this movie also work like the first- there is one big issue I have but I will get to that later. This thing that possesses Skye and makes her see the horrible things is fascinating movie monster. It’s something only the infected person can see and experience so each time we (and Skye) thinks she’s alone, we have to question “are you actually alone?” This leads to some great psychological horror as Skye starts to realize that some terrible thing she thought happened may or may not have actually occurred. That type of horror is right up my alley because it’s more about the horrifying atmosphere than the monster/slasher/boogie-man.

Speaking of, I do like that the film gave this creature more of a personality in this film. In the first we learned what it was and how it works, and in this one we get to see how it enjoys playing with its victims. There’s a scene in which it has a discussion with Skye that I thought was brilliant because it showed that it wasn’t an unthinking abomination and actually was consciously aware (and amused) by it’s torture tactics. 

The last thing I want to mention is this movie’s characters were sometimes funny. Remembering my theater experience for the first, I don’t believe I or anyone laughed once. In this sequel they successfully added levity to some scenes and the comedic delivery by the actors had our theater chuckling. 

What I Didn’t Like:

To things unfortunately detract from the film. First the horror in this movie is 80% jump scares. If you don’t like jump scares you shouldn’t watch this. I personally hate them. I feel they are a predictable relic that should be used sparingly if at all. It got to a point where if the scene was too quiet I knew something was about to pop out, and of course I was correct in my guess each time. It’s really a shame because the psychological-type horror I mentioned earlier worked so much better. 

Next, as much as I trashed the first film, you actually NEED to watch it before you watch this one. These two films together could be a double feature with one leading directly into the other. The sequel will not hold your hand and you only get some exposition on what is happening to Skye about an hour in when a character has a 2 minute exposition dump that quickly covers the events of the first film. So, if you don’t watch that first movie, you’re not going to know what is happening from the beginning. Using context clues you can get close and piece some things together, but having the background will help immensely. 

I am including this as a negative because, in my opinion, the first Smile is a far inferior film. 

Images Courtesy of IMDB