Parker Finn refuses to take the most secure, most evident path in Smile 2, the follow-up to his 2022 hit movie. Adhering to the time-honored custom of going greater and more durable for the horror sequel, Smile 2 declares itself a much more ruthless and intense journey from its opening sequence, an incredibly violent re-introduction into this bleak world. It’s not simply the sequel’s razor-sharp and creative, gory scares that surpass its predecessor, however a profoundly difficult heroine shaping the edgier type of horror.
Smile 2 picks up days after the primary movie’s occasions, monitoring the curse’s path to world-famous pop star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) simply as she’s making ready to launch her new international tour. Two issues develop into instantly clear: the entity appears rather more savage this spherical, and Skye is a deeply flawed and fragile character. This tour has lots using on it, not only for the roles and cash dependent upon its success, but in addition in that it’s purported to be Skye’s main comeback one yr after a traumatic automotive crash that prompted Skye’s journey to rehab and left her boyfriend lifeless. That she’s nonetheless therapeutic from the occasion, bodily and mentally, solely compounds the immense stress she’s beneath. Then she witnesses the brutal suicide of her former drug seller (Lukas Gage), whose creepy smile moments earlier than bashing his personal face alerts the beginning of a complete new set of nightmarish issues for the pop star.
Naomi Scott stars in Paramount Photos Presents A Temple Hill Manufacturing A Parker Finn FIlm “SMILE 2”
Not that Finn ever shied away from violence in Smile, however the gloves are off on this sequel. The inciting occasion that passes the curse to Skye is unflinching and graphic, a mass of flesh and bone and squelchy sounds. It’s not even the primary burst of violence within the sequel to get the blood pumping. Whereas it makes for satisfying, cringe-worthy horror sequences, what impresses most is the best way Finn organically escalates the violence and the nail-biting scares by way of his lead character.
The entity’s extra ruthless technique of psychological warfare right here is tied to Skye’s psychological state, worming its method additional into her mind to make use of her insecurities, anxieties, and deepest fears towards her. Not like Smile‘s Rose Cotter, a therapist with distant trauma and instruments to navigate her psychological state, Skye is ill-equipped to struggle again. Worse, her cool pop star exterior masks a deeply flawed, tumultuous inside dealing with years of deep-seated points. It’s not simply the automotive crash that informs her trauma, however the fractured relationship along with her overbearing mom-turned-manager (Rosemarie DeWitt).
Skye is inclined to creating rash errors, and her checkered previous leaves her with a number of darkish skeletons she’d relatively depart buried. Finn’s complicated writing of her and Scott’s fearless but susceptible portrayal of her is what makes Skye so compelling. Scott throws herself into the deep finish of the position’s bodily calls for, which is a Herculean enterprise in a Smile film. Skye toggles between grueling dance rehearsals by day whereas evading vicious assaults at evening that depart her in snot-nosed hysterics. It’s a continuous marathon earlier than the horror anguish takes root.
Finn is way a extra assured and warranted filmmaker right here, injecting a extra pronounced humorousness and character when not scaring the pants off his viewers. It’s within the thought and care he’s given to his pop star protagonist and within the spectacular manufacturing design that expands the movie’s scale in visually arresting and immersive methods. It seems an prosperous, world-renowned pop star comes armed with daring, dramatic penthouse suites and beautiful enviornment levels to mine new concern ways from.
It’s solely when beholden to a few of Smile‘s guidelines that this sequel falters. It makes it simpler to foretell sure story components, even when thematically becoming. It’s offset by Finn’s devoted ambition to going greater, bolder, and scarier proper right down to a showstopper finale. Particular results legend Alec Gillis and his crew are again to convey particularly impressed new twists to the entity’s machinations, culminating in a jaw-dropping climax that’s each bit as bold because it seems to be.
As somebody who discovered the primary movie strong but finally acquainted in its influences, Smile 2 makes for one of many yr’s greatest horror surprises. Scott delivers a career-defining efficiency, tackling so many layers to her character and with seemingly easy ease. The size is grander, and the scares are much more visceral and violent. However Finn’s mounting confidence and ingenuity are what’s most enjoyable; this filmmaker has solely honed his scare-crafting chops to the sharpest of edges and is having a blast doing it. It makes for a satisfying thrill journey of jaw-dropping horror and unrelenting dread; an ideal Halloween deal with for these in want of a superb scare — or twenty.
Smile 2 opens broad in theaters on October 18, 2024.
