In the superior sequel Smile 2, even pop girlies get the blues

It’s easy to imagine a sequel to Smile. Something grosser, louder, and more interested in lore than scares, squeezing whatever juice remained in the original’s watered-down version of those A24 trauma creepers. Writer-director Parker Finn crafted an enjoyable, if grating, version of better movies with Kubrick-lite compositions to jazz up the COVID-restricted production that kept casting to a minimum and the framing centered. The movie’s stilted style was too invested in its influences, but it had serviceable scares and a straightforward conceit: Following Ring rules, once you see the Smile, you have seven days to live. 

Finn’s Smile 2 opens in a familiar place. Back in Smile’s chilly New Jersey suburbs, holdover cop Joel (Kyle Gallner) spends the sixth day of his Smile journey in his car. Finn doesn’t allow us to settle back into his universe; the camera springs to life and, in a twisting one-shot that’s more Raid than [REC], it follows Joel through the decaying house of a drug dealer. Before we can even get a handle on how Smile 2 connects to the original or what genre this movie is, the blood starts flowing, and the grins begin to stretch.

Side-stepping and sometimes careening around common sequel mistakes, Finn’s screenplay indulges our expectations before upending them with style and humor. Anchored by a gripping and intensely committed performance from Naomi Scott—possessed by the sweaty, snotty spirit of Possession’s Isabelle Adjani—Smile 2 never forgets the pain behind every smirk. 

Scott plays Skye Riley, a pop star on the rebound. A year after a car accident left her boyfriend (Ray Nicholson, blessed with his father Jack’s grin) dead, her career in a tailspin, and herself in rehab, Skye stages a comeback tour that triggers her addiction. Desperate for painkillers, Skye turns to an old dealer, Lewis (Lukas Gage), who is nearing the end of his bout with Smile and looking to pass it on.

The first few scenes illustrate the variety in Smile 2’s script. Moving from Joel’s gangster shootout to an interview with Drew Barrymore and Skye’s dance rehearsal, the movie shows off its various modes of suspense. So much of the film’s disorientation is built around Skye’s schedule, pushing her into situations where she’s surrounded by strangers and expected to show those pearly whites. Scott’s physical performance drives home how exhausting being a pop star with Smile disease is. Skye chugs VOSS, drips sweat, and beats herself to pulp, but it’s nothing compared to one of the film’s early deaths, which sees a face tenderized into a smashed patty of bone, flesh, and teeth.

Firmly in her Reputation era, no one hides their pain behind a smile more than Skye. Whisked along by her manager mother (Rosemarie DeWitt) and casually-abused assistant (Miles Gutierrez-Riley), Skye moves from meet-and-greets with smiling fans to fundraisers with wealthy donors to the makeup chair and the stadium stage without a break, allowing Scott to play different sides of Skye’s panic, from cringe-inducing humiliation to Saw-like bloodletting. Even in the lavishly mundane spaces she calls home, violent hallucinations and smiling figures haunt her. Casting simple shadows around her Upper West Side apartment, Finn creates an old-fashioned atmosphere as his roving camera rotates, swivels, and locks into Skye’s perspective with a modern flare. 

Focusing on the entrails-dragging carnage belies just how fun Smile 2 is. There’s whimsy and humor in how Skye’s team reacts to her mania. After a year of career suicide, people expect diva behavior from her and treat it as another part of the job, hoping to keep her happy and get the tour moving. Her estranged friend Gemma (Dylan Gelula) provides a believable sounding board. The film’s humor breaks up the tension (without deflating it) and carves space for more idiosyncratic and funny setpieces, like the show-stopping sequence in which Skye’s creepy crawling backup dancers haunt her apartment with voguing choreography.

With the throngs of screaming fans and backstage areas teeming with photographers and producers, the movie imprisons Skye before the Smile even comes into the picture. Smile 2 isn’t simply about trauma, it’s about hiding it—and Skye’s world gives the film a strong justification for doing so. The second horror movie about a pop star this year, Smile finds more to play with than M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap, particularly in the music. Cristobal Tapia de Veer’s discordant score drapes over Skye’s Tate McCrae-penned jam, “Grieve You,” adding an unsettling overtone to Skye’s radio-friendly pop. The backstage-musical-meets-supernatural-terror elements make for an All That Jazz-inspired romp, giving Scott a more complicated character to play and, as the lines between performer and performance blur, a scarier Black Swan song to sing.

Horror sequels often succumb to explanation and demystification, and before you know it, Michael Myers is controlled by a constellation. Smile 2 weaponizes those tropes, folding them into Skye’s journey without damaging the central idea. Yes, the varying quality of performances from the supporting cast and the film’s slightly bloated 127-minute runtime might leave cheeks straining. But the film finds dark humor in taking these desperate feelings of unease and feeding them to a kaleidoscopic creature of pain and viscera. Now that’s something to smile at—if you can bear to look at the screen. 

Director: Parker Finn
Writer: Parker Finn
Starring: Naomi Scott, Rosemarie DeWitt, Kyle Gallner, Lukas Gage, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Peter Jacobson, Raúl Castillo, Dylan Gelula, Ray Nicholson
Release Date: October 18, 2024