Smile 2 (2024) Review: This Otherwise Overstretched, More-of-the-Same Sequel Gets a Gorier Screen Treatment

It’s a deja vu experience in Smile 2, the sequel to the surprise 2022 box-office hit that made over US$217 million against a US$17 million budget. For a movie that was originally intended for streaming release on Paramount+, the studio took the chance of putting it on the big screen. I agree the first movie was a visceral cinematic experience in which then-newcomer Parker Finn effectively combined ominous dread and grisly horror elements. He has a knack for jump scares, even though he tends to rely on them too heavily for his own good.

By comparison, Smile 2 reduces its jump scare-heavy tactics in favour of more gory and graphically violent set pieces, a result that can be seen right from the pre-credits opening scene. It was easily the best scene in this sequel as Finn upped the ante by shooting it in a continuous long take with enough palpable tension and dramatic stakes. The story is then introduced to a new protagonist named Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), a controversial pop star recovering from addiction and previously responsible for the car accident that tragically killed her celebrity beau, Paul Hudson (Ray Nicholson — yup, that’s Jack’s son).

With the help of her manager-mother (Rosemarie DeWitt) and assistant Joshua (Miles Gutierrez-Riley), Skye is set for a comeback as she works hard during the song-and-dance rehearsal, attending the press tour and prepping for her concert. But the accident has also left her physically scarred with persistent back pain that often hinders her busy schedule.

One night, she decides to sneak out to Lewis’ (Lukas Gage) apartment for Vicodin to ease her pain. That’s where the horror starts as she witnesses her friend and drug dealer subsequently go crazy and bash his own face repeatedly with a weight plate (hardly a spoiler here since the scene is heavily marketed in the trailers).

So far, so good and I was expecting things will continue to get better for the rest of the movie. Sure, there are a few effective jump scares here and there but I can’t help seeing some of them feel like cheap thrills. We get a lot of scenes where Naomi Scott shouts a lot to the point her character goes wildly hysterical. No doubt she does her best here but her penchant for overacting tends to get on my nerves, unlike Sosie Bacon, the previous lead protagonist from the first movie who did a better job playing a character suffering from trauma.

I notice Smile 2 runs over 10 minutes longer than the first movie, which I assume Finn has something more to say in the sequel. Finn, who also wrote the screenplay, explores Skye’s plight dealing with her personal demon and the price of fame while the curse of the unseen demonic entity begins to torment her state of mind. Her character is supposed to undergo a career renaissance, especially for all the controversy that painted her in a negative light. The unexpected arrival of the entity serves as a cruel twist of fate both metaphorically and literally, which doubles her mental and emotional distress on the verge of a breakdown.

But what should have been a character meant to sympathise with Skye’s predicament, I find it hard to root for her. The way her character is written and portrayed on the screen is more of an in-your-face showcase of amplifying her emotions thrown directly at the viewers. The repetitive nature of is-it-or-isn’t-it Skye just imagining things gets tedious after a while while some of the first movie’s shortcomings still rear their ugly heads in the sequel. This is especially true with the movie seemingly going around the circle in the middle section with Skye spending too much time freaking out without truly advancing the story. It’s all rinse and repeat, even though at one point, the movie does introduce a crucial new character played by Peter Jacobson as Morris.

And yet, his character which I’m expecting to see some breakthrough in Finn’s otherwise confined storytelling doesn’t do much to elevate the sequel after all. Like the first movie, Smile 2 culminates in a bleak third act where Finn does a better job with the gore effects. Speaking of the gore, the sequel looks like Finn is granted with a substantial budget to go all out making the viewers feel uncomfortable and squinting their eyes.

How I wish the story, which is pretty much delving into the same-old been-there, done-that territory, is as good as the visceral horror elements that Finn successfully incites through blood, gore and violence. Should there be a third Smile movie (again, it all depends on how much this sequel would fare at the box office), I hope Finn would stop relying too much on rehashing the first movie’s formula and start expanding the mythology surrounding the demonic entity.