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Film: Smile 2
Year: 2024
Director: Parker Finn
Writer: Parker Finn
Starring: Naomi Scott, Rosemarie DeWitt and Lukas Gage
Review:
This was a film that intrigued me when I heard it was coming out. I wasn’t shocked with how well the first one did. There is room to play with this curse and the places that you can go with it. It feels like The Ring or The Grudge where characters do certain, normal things that cause them to be cursed. There is a potential for rich mythology due to that. Now I was able to avoid trailers and just knew basic information about what we’d get. I was delayed in seeing this due to life in October being busy as well.
Synopsis: about to embark on a world tour, global pop sensation Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events. Overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and the pressures of fame, she is forced to face her past.
We start this off learning that this is 6 days later, which I thought was a good nod to the earlier film. We see Joel (Kyle Gallner) attack a guy getting out of his car. I won’t spoil what happens here, but if you’ve seen the first film, then you know what his plan is to deal with the curse. It doesn’t end like he thinks, especially since Lewis Fregoli (Lukas Gage) was in the house.
It is from here that we meet our lead, Skye. Her backstory is filled in while she’s on the Drew Barrymore (playing herself) show. She had issues with drugs and alcohol as well as a car accident that killed her then boyfriend, Paul Hudson (Ray Nicholson), who was an actor. She has gone through treatment and rehabilitation. Now that she’s clean, she has an upcoming world tour. We see that might not truly be the case when she tweaks her back while rehearsing. She goes to see her dealer, Lewis. It is here that she sees something horrific as he kills himself.
Skye then descends into madness as she tries to figure out what is real or what is her imagination. Her mother is trying to keep her from relapsing, Elizabeth (Rosemarie DeWitt). She could be pushing her too hard though. We see that Skye also tries to get her best friend back, Gemma (Dylan Gelula). She pushed her away during her struggles and they haven’t had a chance to reconcile. This is complicated now that she is haunted by this curse. There is Morris (Peter Jacobson), who knows about what is after her. Skye being as popular as she is, makes it even more difficult with needing to keep up her public persona, while worrying about what they’re going to think.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that I’ve benefited from seeing this later than other people. The community I’m a part of seems to be broken up into groups who love this film, maybe unabashedly, where I’ve seen others who hate it. I want to develop my thoughts before deciding here, but I’ll say that I also take into consideration what their tastes are as well, which does make me laugh with films that I see them toting as ‘masterpieces’.
Where I’ll then start is that coming in to see the original, I didn’t have high hopes. That made me enjoy it more than I was expecting as well. I expected a Blumhouse type horror film and got something darker. With a sequel, I was hoping for more of that and to continue to build on the lore. We get that in part at least. What is interesting to go along with that, I thought that the storyline was interesting by moving the curse on to a public figure. In this case, a pop singer who is wildly popular. That was an interesting move to go, especially one that is unreliable having just become ‘clean’ from addiction. I like this idea since people around her wouldn’t trust or give the benefit of the doubt. Credit to the story elements there for sure.
Let me then discuss our lead, Skye. I saw someone’s issue with this movie that they hated all the characters. This is an intriguing reason to hate a movie for me, especially when I don’t necessarily know if we’re supposed to like the characters. I can see that as an issue since we are supposed to feel bad for our lead. She went through a lot to get ‘clean’, but we see that she isn’t. She made a bad decision by going to Lewis’ apartment to get painkillers. I can see a commentary there on society. My stance here is that I don’t necessarily like Skye. I feel bad that she is pushed into this tour, but she is also rich, so then she should give up the lifestyle. Her mother pushes her to perform. There are people who need that, but clearly Skye isn’t ready. Our lead does treat people around her poorly. There is also this curse that is isolating and stressing her, so that’s something to factor in. I love that this movie gave us a complicated character as she feels real to me. I’ll credit Scott for that as well.
I think next should be the curse. A gripe that I have is that with the limited lore that we got in the first movie, I wanted that to develop more. We don’t though, which is a slight negative for me. My stance with a movie is that I don’t love it when we have an expert who just dumps the information on us. At times, it makes sense. Since we are following new characters, it partially feels like a rehash of the original just in a different situation. This does take it to a larger scale with a character like Skye. We don’t learn more about the entity. If anything, I think that they simplify it. I’m not going to spoil things. What I’ll say here is that it seems like this creature now kills people, it looks like a suicide to those around them and that transfers it to the witnesses. This is a great concept, but I wanted just more for the overarching story.
Let me then move over to filmmaking. Where I’ll start is that the overall atmosphere here is great. Having someone who needs to keep it together due to their profile in the public is an amazing way to build tension. Then making that character unreliable due to substance abuse adds to it, plus the stress of what goes into them being successful. Something else great here is the framing and the cinematography. There are such interesting things done and used there, I wanted to give credit. Now the effects are a combination of practical and CGI. Using dancers helps with the former. This goes brutal places so that adds to it. The CGI had money behind it, so they look solid as well. I also thought that the soundtrack and sound design was something else that was a positive as well. This is well-made.
All that is left then is acting. Scott is someone that I’ve already said is great. DeWitt works as this mother who loves Skye but might also be pushing her too hard. There is a good balance there. Since she doesn’t realize what is happening, I can’t fault her as it isn’t logical. Her daughter is a recovering addict as well. Gelula, Miles Gutierrez-Riley and Raúl Castillo help to keep her on track while also complicating her life. I like Jacobson as our ‘expert’. There is also Gage as a catalyst. I’ll also credit Gallner, Barrymore and the rest of the cast as well. It worked for me personally.
In conclusion, I thought that this was a solid follow up. This is an interesting creature and curse that comes with it. I’d still like to learn more about it as we still don’t know much more than what has been briefly given in both now. Making this one a bigger scale was good. What comes with a pop star being cursed creates tension. I’d say that the acting from Scott was good with everyone pushing her to where she ends up. Other than that, this is well-made with the cinematography, framing, effects and sound design leading the way. I’ll try to sneak in a second watch before my end of year list, I enjoyed it that much.
My Rating: 8 out of 10