“Smile 2” is one of those rare examples in movies where the sequel actually lives up to the demands and success of the original. It showcased a blend of horrid anticipation and a shocking twist that made the audience verbally confused. Warning, this review will contain spoilers.
The movie opens with the most recent holder of the Smile curse, Officer Joel, from “Smile.” He attempts to get rid of the curse by taking the life of another person. It was found in the original movie that the curse can be passed on to another person if you kill a human directly in front of them. This act will prevent the death of the original host, in which case his life would end via suicide, and the curse would be passed on anyway.
Officer Joel did end up killing someone, but there was another person hiding in the back, so ultimately, the curse got passed on to an innocent person.
As Joel fled the scene, he was killed by a car in the most horrific way. Based on the sheer amount of blood from this death, this was the moment I knew “Smile 2” would surpass the original in terms of gore.
The story picks back up after the haunting title pops up on the screen. That alone scared many members in the audience, mostly due to the loud music and bright red letters.
We learn that as an audience, we are actually following the perspective of Skye Riley, portrayed by actress Naomi Scott. Riley is a global popstar in the film, recovering from both an addiction and her boyfriend’s death a year prior.
After an exhausting day of rehearsing for her “comeback” tour, she ventures off to find her dealer, Lewis, to aid in her excruciating back pain.
Immediately after going to his apartment, we learn that Lewis is the one who now holds the curse. He is clearly on edge and paranoid, which Riley takes as just freaking out from being high. Moments later, Lewis takes his own life, passing the curse to Riley.
What stood out to me the most in this movie was both the gore and the jumpscares. As someone who absolutely loves horror, there were a couple times where my popcorn almost went flying in the theater.
The special effects in this movie are extraordinary, and Scott does a brilliant job of taking on the role of terrified Riley. Throughout the movie, the demon haunts her by portraying itself as her dead boyfriend, giving the movie a psychological element of recovering grief.
Additionally, she hallucinates multiple events that we learn never occurred, from reconnecting with her best friend to murdering her mother. As an audience, we had no clue what was real and what was imagined, making the experience even more thrilling.
One hallucination that stuck out to me was the scene from her apartment where her backup dancers are practically crawling down a corridor to get to her. That scene was completely unnerving and bone-chilling.
The finale of “Smile 2” shocked me to my core. It’s where we realized the hallucinations Riley experienced, and the solution the film was alluding to was entirely fake.
Instead, we end up with Riley on stage during opening night of her tour. Riley, herself, is confused, staring out at the audience. She sees her mother, whom we all thought was dead, before getting possessed by the demon.
From the audience ‘s perspective, it looks like Riley is having a medical episode on the floor, but no one rushes to help. That part was infuriating.
Eventually, Riley hops up, but she turns to give us all the creepiest smile to ever exist. She then reaches down to grab her microphone and plunges it through her eye.
We only see the reaction of her fans to her doing this, but we hear the sound. The haunting sound of Riley trying time and time again to perform this horrifying act. In the end, we see the final result of Riley lying lifeless on stage, and I think the entire finale was one of the hardest watches for me.
Overall, “Smile 2” exceeded every expectation I had. It’s been a long time since I have been truly horrified while watching a movie, so I give all my accolades to the actors, directors, sound producers and screenwriters.
