Smile 2 Movie Review: Convincing Sequel Which Works and Scares Much More Than the First
Cast: Naomi Scott, Rosemarie DeWitt, Lukas Gage, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Peter Jacobson, Raúl Castillo, Dylan Gelula and Ray Nicholson
Director: Parker Finn
Where to Watch: In Theaters
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars)
It starts short and becomes a successful film; the standard Hollywood protocol, at this point, is almost a conditioned reflex. From a small seed, a franchise has sprouted: Smile 2, the sequel to the popular 2022 horror film directed by Parker Finn – also at the helm of the original – and starring Naomi Scott, Rosemary DeWitt, Lukas Gage, Peter Jacobson and more, arrives in theaters on October 17 for Eagle Pictures. Horror competition with several other horror films, but it is inevitable. The (dark) magic of the period, with Halloween just around the corner, “calls” the market loudly. Smile 2 challenges the competition by focusing on psychological horror and impalpable work on the atmosphere, without forgetting the virtues and rewards of more explicit, violent, and disgusting storytelling. And it will probably be so, seeing this second chapter and the will of the director himself to test himself with a different story from that of Smile in 2022 (his debut film after a couple of shorts), made at the time leaving more than one idea hanging. To link the sequel to the previous one – in addition to the grinning demon of course – we find Kyle Gallner ‘s Joel, in a cast completed by Raúl Castillo, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Ray Nicholson, Lukas Gage, and Dylan Gelula in more or less secondary roles, and by a plethora of quality actors such as Rosemarie DeWitt and Peter Jacobson, the former Taub of Dr. House, not by chance called to play the role of a nurse with savior ambitions.
Above all, the surprising Naomi Scott, a singer with three albums under her belt, before the one she recorded as Skye Riley for the film, and a hot name after being one of the Power Rangers in 2017 and Jasmine in 2019’s Aladdin (in addition to the engineer who kicks off the story of Elizabeth Banks ‘ Charlie’s Angels). Smile 2, while starting from the same premises, is decidedly more convincing in its narrative intent. Finn, who once again writes and directs, gives this sequel a whole other depth by addressing issues such as mental illness, and depression, and questioning the weight of fame, especially on the very young. The monstrous entity that haunts the protagonist Skye is a perfect metaphor for these themes, in particular how a state of depression that is not addressed and treated can destroy a person’s life. The viewer cannot help but empathize with Skye, who despite having nothing in common (she is a world-famous pop star who is returning to the stage after a break) is trying to overcome difficulties and problems that are “universal” in their way and for this reason, the viewing experience is particularly immersive and engaging.
Smile 2 Movie Review: The Story Plot
Six days have passed since the previous chapter, so the supernatural deadline at the story’s center is almost here. Parker Finn’s direction takes us in medias res into this seemingly endless chain of events and we arrive at the new female protagonist, pop star Skye Riley, played this time by Naomi Scott, perfect for the role and to support an entire film. The singer is slowly recovering after a terrible decline made by drug and alcohol addiction that led to a bad accident in her life. The meeting with an old friend, Lewis (Lukas Gage), makes her enter the dangerous orbit of that seemingly endless curse, leaving her determined mother-agent (Rosemarie DeWitt), her former best friend (Dylan Gelula), her shy assistant (Miles Gutierrez-Riley) and the music producer (Raúl Castillo) who only thinks about profit, perplexed. Alfred Hitchcock said it, many years ago, and Parker Finn has kept the lesson in mind. With good results, among other things, without this leading to delirious and frankly untenable comparisons between their respective artistic merits. Hitchcock said it, he said it about the thriller, it’s true, while here we are in the field of pure horror but the message is valid all the same. What exactly did Hitchcock say, in his monologue conversation with François Truffaut about the relationship between environment, story, and character?
Every good director, every self-respecting playwright, must be able to enhance not only the dramatic potential of the characters (personality, physicality, professional skills) but also the possibilities offered by the environments in which the characters move. So, if you happen to shoot a film on the shore of a lake, someone will have to drown. If the spy story is set in Holland, windmills will be used to transmit coded messages about an unspecified international intrigue. This was a lesson Hitchcock taught us, and Finn used it for Smile 2. It is the story of a pop star, told from the point of view of a pop star. Everything in her environment – the exhausting show business that crumbles mental health – that serves to strengthen her sense of delirium and fear, the film uses without reserve.
After all, there is a lot to choose from and a lot is chosen: the morbid attention of fans, the abuse of substances, pills, and alcohol, the omnipresence of social media, the invasiveness of the media, rehab, the tendency to make the pop star a human-like vessel for the dreams, outbursts and frustrations of millions of people, and, conversely, the pop star’s inclination to wallow in her insecurities, responding to the dehumanizing push of show business by degrading herself, allowing herself to be devoured by neuroses and paranoia, seeking help in the wrong places and from the wrong people. Skye Riley (Scott) is a famous pop star and has had a horrible year. Her oppressive mother-cum-manager (DeWitt) hasn’t helped, it’s taken her a long time to recover, and her sabbatical has only added fuel to the fire of her insecurities, making her more vulnerable than ever. She’s on the verge of a tour that should put her career back on track, but something happens and the only person who can help her is the mysterious Morris (Jacobson).
Smile 2 Movie Review and Analysis
What happens is that Skye comes into contact with a demonic entity – the what, how, and why of the creature remains a mystery and it is good that it is so – that acts like a lethal virus on the minds of the unfortunate and, as a distinctive sign, has the fearsome smile, a diabolical grin printed on the face of the infected to foretell a horrible end. On this basis, Smile 2 subjects the protagonist to a double test. Parker Finn combines two horrors in one, ensuring that the main narrative lines – the protagonist’s fight against the creature, the exploration of the life and shadows of a pop star – are simultaneously amalgamated and independent. More prosaically, Smile 2 is an attempt to juxtapose two types of fear, one triggered by everyday anxieties and neuroses, the other immune to the laws of logic and common sense, supernatural, difficult to define, and deadly. It is clear that the balance can never be perfect, indeed, for no reason in the world should it be. In the end, the entity will have to get better of the story of the entertainment industry.
The audience is here for this, and this is how the shocking ending should be interpreted, it’s putting things back in place according to the conventions of the franchise by giving irrational evil the last word. It is nevertheless appreciable that the film tries to give itself depth beyond its most recognizable strengths. There is a sincere interest in exploring the grey areas and short circuits of the music world by analyzing the impact that an artificial and mechanical, industrial construction of a young woman’s life and career can have on her mental health. Spoiler, it’s disastrous. Yet, Skye’s life is made up of problems that are only tangentially attributable to her profession. The suspense of Smile 2 is built on an intelligent shift in perspective: the world observes the protagonist behaving in an illogical manner and thinks of yet another drugged pop star (a hybrid look between Lady Gaga and Amy Winehouse) who has lost control of her life. The viewer knows that this is not the case, Skye’s fight for control goes far beyond her job, it is a desperate match against Evil.
At a certain level, however, the line between professional and non-professional anxieties blurs, to the point that the film is no longer able to tell us how much of what happens is attributable to the demon and how much the product of an interiority is devastated by pressure and success. Naomi Scott builds the character with energy, electricity, and a strong passion. If Smile 2 – too lazy in its obsessive reliance on sudden shocks and disturbing sound effects – manages to sustain its intelligent fear, it depends largely on the protagonist’s ability to inhabit both sides with the same energetic ease. Be it every day fear, or the ghost of a smile. As we anticipated, Smile 2 seems much more inspired than its predecessor, even from a directorial point of view. Finn has fun and experiments, bringing absolutely frightening situations to life on the screen: the winning choice, in our opinion, is to never abandon the protagonist’s perspective, following her at every moment of her terrifying journey.
In this way, the viewer is dragged into the story and feels the same confusion as Skye: is what she sees really happening? How far can the evil entity go in taking control of her mind? Only the incipit is not focused on the protagonist, but it is still extremely impactful: with a series of long shots Finn builds the tension from the first minutes of the film, anticipating the oppressive (and inescapable) tone of the story. Naomi Scott is very convincing as Skye, an archetypal pop star who is a bit Taylor Swift and a bit Britney Spears of the latest generation, one of those celebrities who has accumulated enormous fame since she was very young but who constantly risks being crushed by it. The toxic relationship with a mother thirsty for success by proxy makes her characterization even more realistic. The secondary cast also works particularly well, even if it is logically never as central and in-depth as the protagonist. However, the one who really stands out on the screen is an actor who is on the scene for only a few minutes, Ray Nicholson, who inherited from his father Jack a smile that is crazier and more terrifying than ever, as well as the ability to fascinate and scare the viewer at the same time.
So let’s answer the question that many viewers will ask themselves before entering the theater: is Smile 2 scarier than the first chapter? Definitely yes. Despite using a large number of jump scares (which by definition are always a bit predictable), the director can constantly build tension and create chilling sequences. One in particular, in which the protagonist finds herself persecuted by a crowd of smiling fans, is among the most genuinely disturbing horror scenes we’ve seen on screen recently. Compared to the first film, Smile 2 increases the level of gore and violence: there is no shortage of scenes that will make you look away from the screen, but they have a reason to be in the context of this story and are not created just for the sake of shocking the viewer.
But Finn’s own screenplay certainly contributes to keeping more than what was promised, which here, in addition to broadening the scope of the ‘chain’ and the context, even goes so far as to develop a more specific version of the victim’s trauma. Without going to look for the various references to Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cure or Todd Haynes’ Safe, cited by the director as some of the examples he had in mind when thinking about his Smile, in his work we can certainly find respect for the genre’s canons as well as an attempt – successful – to delve deeper into the main character and stage a series of very current and heartfelt themes such as depression and stress determined by the external environment and other people’s expectations, the drifts of a society in which image is everything, in short. But above all, focus on the issue of control, central even in the first film. A control over herself that the protagonist tries to regain, against the demon (or “parasite” as it is defined at a certain point, even allegorically) that possessed her, but that poor Skye has already lost even before being cursed, for all too real causes, such as drugs and addictions in general, often an escape from the pressures referred to, and for the youngest.
It’s funny to note how even in this case – albeit differently – the world of music was chosen to set a new ‘nightmare’ after M-Night Shyamalan’s Trap, and it must be emphasized that among the film’s merits, there is certainly the choreography of one of the most terrifying and dramatic scenes that the musical setting gives to this chapter. One of the many in a film that at certain moments risks, and relies, inevitably and understandably, also on somewhat conventional models, but which gives an ending that – although predictable during the story – remains decidedly intriguing, especially given a third chapter (but also regardless). And one of the most successful jumpscares of recent years, ‘easy’ like all jumpscares, but more sensible than usual and by right among the best. The uncertain alternation between what is real and what is a vivid hallucination becomes a weak point in the long run, even if some of these sequences are true visual masterpieces.
Smile 2 Movie Review: The Last Words
Smile 2 is a great sequel, which we definitely enjoyed more than its predecessor. Parker Finn, who once again writes and directs, is more inspired by the storytelling and directorial aspects. The cast is great, especially the protagonist Naomi Scott. As the sequel descends into grand guignol grotesquery with Skye’s final torment, it becomes less disturbing and more detached. The elements that made Smile so disturbing are sacrificed in favor of gory spectacle and the simplicity of the concept is lost as the film reaches over two hours in length. Smile 2 confirms Finn as a visually talented director who also directs his actors well. Perhaps he should hold back a bit more and focus more on his storytelling skills. Still, there’s a lot to like about a director who is so unabashed, and the sequel is sure to leave many horror fans grinning from ear to ear.
Smile 2 Movie Review: Convincing Sequel Which Works and Scares Much More Than the First - Filmyhype
Director: Parker Finn
Date Created: 2024-10-17 18:17
4
Pros
- The atmospheres are just right for a horror of this type.
- The plot is engaging and interesting
- The protagonist is well characterized
- The director is very inspired
Cons
- Some narrative solutions are a bit predictable
