SMILE 2 (2024)

Studio:   Paramount Pictures
Director: Parker Finn
Writer:   Parker Finn
Producer: Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey, Isaac Klausner, Parker Finn, Robert Salerno
Stars:    Naomi Scott, Rosemarie DeWitt, Lukas Gage, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Peter Jacobson, Ray Nicholson, Dylan Gelula, Raul Castillo, Kyle Gallner

Review Score:

---

Summary:

A troubled popstar inherits the curse of an entity that causes terrifying hallucinations of smiling people before driving someone to commit suicide.

---

Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Six days after witnessing the suicide of his ex-girlfriend Dr. Rose Cotter, which caused him to inherit the curse of a trauma entity that drives its victim to see sinisterly smiling visions before killing themself in front of a witness after seven days, police detective Joel tries to transfer the curse by killing drug dealer Yev in front of his murderous brother Alexi. However, Alexi quickly dies in an unexpected shootout with Joel. With Joel unaware he was also in the room, lower-level drug dealer Lewis Fregoli witnesses the deaths and inherits the curse instead. The arrival of Alexi's henchmen forces Joel to flee outside, where he is struck by a truck and killed.

One year after surviving a horrific car accident that killed her actor boyfriend Paul Hudson, popstar Skye Riley discusses her struggles with substance abuse while promoting an upcoming comeback tour on "The Drew Barrymore Show." Later, during a dance rehearsal with her choreographer Anton, Skye suffers back pain stemming from debilitating injuries caused by the crash.

No longer able to obtain prescription painkillers due to her past problems, Skye goes to get Vicodin from Lewis, whom she knows from high school. Finding Lewis suffering from haunting hallucinations, Skye is shocked when he smiles strangely before brutally bashing himself to death with a barbell plate. Afraid of being associated with a drug dealer's death, Skye flees the scene after considering calling 911.

Skye begins seeing frightening visions of smiling people, including Lewis, Paul Hudson, and a crazed fan who seemingly breaks into her apartment, that increasingly unravel her mind. She also starts receiving messages about Lewis's death from an unknown phone number.

Desperate for someone to talk to, Skye contacts her estranged best friend Gemma, whom she hasn't spoken with in a year due to a major blowout between them. Skye tells Gemma what happened with Lewis. Gemma advises Skye to not tell the police about his death since it could further damage Skye's public image.

Skye hallucinates a gruesome injury during another dance rehearsal. When Skye screams at her backup dancers for causing her fall, choreographer Anton insists no one was near her.

Skye returns to her dressing room to find it trashed. Skye blames the damage on her assistant Joshua, who swears he didn't do it. Skye's overbearing mother Elizabeth, who is also Skye's manager, tries calming her down. Skye concludes she cannot continue with her tour, prompting Elizabeth to insist Skye needs to honor her commitments in spite of the mounting stress.

At a fundraising benefit hosted by wealthy promoter Darius Bravo, Skye stuns attendees by delivering an awkward speech about drug abuse and the music industry making people like her miserable. Terrified by a vision of Paul Hudson approaching her while smiling, Skye inadvertently knocks an elderly woman off the stage and into a table, further alarming the event's guests.

Following a message from the unknown number that promises to help with her visions, Skye arranges to meet the mystery man in a bar. The man turns out to be Morris, an ER nurse whose brother was killed by the curse. Morris reveals he was trying to warn Lewis about the curse, which he traced to Skye because she was the last number in Lewis's phone. Morris explains how a supernatural parasite disguises itself as smiling people only the infected person can see. It drives the host insane until they kill themself in front of a witness who subsequently becomes the next host. Believing the chain can be broken if the host dies in a manner outside the malevolent being's control, Morris proposes stopping Skye's heart to induce death and then reviving her. Disturbed by the suggestion, Skye suddenly rushes out after a mob of fans recognizes her.

Back in her apartment, Skye is attacked by a horde of smiling backup dancers who pull out her hair and force an arm down her throat. Knocked unconscious, Skye flashes back to the car accident, which she caused by grabbing the wheel during an argument with Paul while they were both high on cocaine.

Skye wakes up in a wellness center with her mother watching over her. Skye again insists on cancelling her tour, which Elizabeth vehemently refuses to do because it would be the end of Skye's career. In the ensuing argument, Skye sees her mother smiling before using a shard of broken mirror glass to repeatedly stab herself to death. Shortly thereafter, Skye is horrified to find herself holding the shard, indicating she killed Elizabeth.

Skye tries sneaking out of the facility, but her assistant Joshua alerts doctors when he sees Skye covered in blood. Skye grabs a handgun from a security guard, and she uses it to threaten her way out of the building.

Outside, Skye runs into Gemma. Using the gun to commandeer an SUV, Skye speeds away with Gemma behind the wheel.

During the drive, Skye receives a phone call from the real Gemma, who is returning Skye's original text message for the first time. Skye realizes she has been hallucinating Gemma ever since the night Gemma seemingly came to Skye's apartment. Skye suddenly finds herself driving the SUV, which she immediately stops to narrowly avoid a dangerous collision.

Skye arranges to meet Morris at an abandoned Pizza Hut in Staten Island. There, Morris prepares an injection to stop Skye's heart in a walk-in freezer that will lower her body temperature.

When Morris leaves the room, Skye confronts a terrifying doppelganger of herself. The encounter carries over to a vision of Skye onstage facing another doppelganger that transforms into a monstrosity. In reality, Skye convulses onstage at a concert, revealing much of her experience has been a hallucination. Finally succumbing to the curse, Skye smiles ominously before gruesomely killing herself in front of a shocked arena crowd.

---

Review:

It's been six days since police detective Joel (Kyle Gallner) witnessed the shocking suicide of his ex-girlfriend at the end of "Smile." Destined to be driven to a similar fate in under 24 hours, Joel desperately tries to avoid death by passing the curse of a parasitic trauma entity, who haunts its host with hallucinations until they die in front of a witness that becomes the next victim, to someone he deems deserving. Unfortunately, Joel's attempt to curse a murderous drug dealer goes haywire, and a low-level stooge ends up the demon's next target instead.

With that, "Smile 2" moves on to a new cast and a new story that doesn't require new viewers to know anything else about the first film. Through a "Drew Barrymore Show" snippet, we're soon introduced to popstar Skye Riley. One year ago, Skye survived a deadly car wreck that killed her actor boyfriend Paul Hudson (Ray Nicholson). The road to recovery has left her with physical and mental scars, and a trail of empty pill bottles to go along with a substance abuse problem she and Paul shared. Preparations for her upcoming comeback tour have been grueling. Skye needs Vicodin to work through rehearsals, and the only option she has left for getting what she needs is her old high school contact Lewis, the guy who got cursed in the prologue.

Skye isn't even in his apartment for five seconds when Lewis flips his lid, ranting and raving about visions no one else can see. Lewis only calms down when an unsettling smile changes his face. Now it's Skye's turn to go berserk as she helplessly watches Lewis brutally bash in his own head with a barbell plate. If she thinks that's horrifying, wait until she sees what else happens now that she's the new link in the trauma being's chain.

Refreshing my memory of the original "Smile" by looking back at my review (review here), it speaks to writer/director Parker Finn's consistency that I said, "a list of the movie's perks begins with Sosie Bacon's performance in the top spot" because the same sentiment holds true for Naomi Scott's performance in "Smile 2." Skye Riley is a surprisingly captivating character who anchors all of the emotional hooks in the film. A balanced mix between conceited celebrity and approachable person, Skye's worst traits stop her from being completely sympathetic sometimes, yet Scott still convincingly grounds her escalating madness in heartbreaking humanity to create a relatable personality whose conflicts keep Skye intriguing.

Also speaking to Finn's consistency, it's funny that my top two quibbles about "Smile" had to do with its excessive length of nearly two hours and its lack of revelations regarding exactly how its fiction functioned. As if intentionally defying the first criticism, Finn actually makes "Smile 2" even longer, topping out at seven minutes over two hours. I'm not sure the movie needs a complete song and dance number from Skye, or multiple costume changes for her photo shoot montage. But I admire Finn for seemingly saying, "what do impatient people know, I'm going to do this my way," even if his way involves making scenes longer than narratively necessary.

"Smile 2" doesn't offer any new explanations about the curse, either. The structure of the story puts Skye in a starting position where she has no way of knowing why she is having hallucinations of smiling people stalking her. In order for her to obtain exposition, the script creates a character, and smartly casts veteran actor Peter Jacobson to play him for added credibility, whose main purpose is to explain the situation to Skye after she's already been through a harrowing experience for an hour. I would agree that taking too much mystery out of the monster might be detrimental to how effective the eeriness can be. Yet anyone searching for more information on the movie's mythology will be out of luck once again.

In the meantime, "Smile 2" overcomes minor drawbacks by being stylishly scary and routinely unnerving. The film repeatedly features grotesque deaths that are almost artistic in their gruesomeness. Finn appears to have a particular fascination with painful pulling, as there are shots of pulling a glass shard out of a bare foot, pulling an IV needle out of an arm, and plenty of hair clumps pulled out of Skye's head.

Between crunchy tugs on that hair and the barbell plate dragging heavily across the floor, every frightening flinch comes with an accompanying sound effect that heightens the visceral intensity. Add in a cool blue hue to accent atmosphere and "Smile 2" carries a chilling tone all the way from Joel's violent death to an ending that sends viewers home with a suggestion so sinister, you have to applaud the movie's delightfully sick sense of humor.

Although sleeker and perhaps scarier, or at least squirmier, than the first movie, "Smile 2's" fault is that it's arguably "more of the same" rather than a real advancement on what came before. The formula certainly seems to be getting refined on the technical end, as the film looks fantastic. If Parker Finn can just figure out how to add a little more heft to the backstory, and if a judicious editor can help curb his urge to be overindulgent on scene lengths, "Smile 3" could be even better, bleaker, and possibly more macabre than this series is already shaping up to be.

Review Score: 70

---