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Smile 2 might have the most uncomfortable scene in any movie this year, a notable feat given that Terrifier 3 is playing across the hall. Director Parker Finn throws the viewer in the middle of an argument between drug-addicted pop star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) and her movie star boyfriend (Ray Nicholson). As the two race down twisting California roads, their argument gets increasingly intense, each hurling cruel barbs at the other and neither showing any tenderness.
Finn puts the camera right between the two combatants and whip pans from one to the other, forcing the audience to look at the closeup of the other person’s face as they mock their partner. The entire argument plays out in a single take, not ending until the car crashes, giving Skye the central trauma that will haunt her throughout the movie.
For some, the formal ambitiousness of the argument scene is exactly what they want from a sequel to Smile. The 2022 horror film was a breakout hit thanks to its creepy viral marketing, TikTok-ready scenes, and irresistible premise. That movie introduced the idea of a viral demon, which spread from one victim to another by forcing the new mark to witness a traumatic event. The demon’s manifestation in the form of people forcing a twisted smile over their horror captured the suffocating societal demands to put on a happy face instead of admitting an internal struggle.
After a brief opening that checks in with Kyle Gallner’s Joel, a survivor from the first film, Smile 2 introduces us to Skye, who is a year out from her fateful accident. Much to the delight of her success-minded mother (Rosemarie DeWitt), Skye is ready to rebound and embark on a major tour. Yet Skye finds that the elaborate choreography required for her shows, the constant stream of fans and sycophants, and the glitzy costumes make it almost impossible to hide her scars. Not just emotional scars, but also the physical one across her stomach; a blemish unbecoming of a pop idol.
Wracked with pain and limited in getting legitimate prescriptions by her substance abuse issues, Skye seeks vidicon from Lewis (Lukas Gage), who went to high school with her and her estranged best friend Gemma (Dylan Gelula). Unfortunately for Skye, Lewis is the latest host for the Smile Demon. After Lewis kills himself in grisly fashion in front of her, Skye spends the rest of the movie seeing twisting, smiling faces.
And so does the audience. Moving on from the generational mental illness metaphor from Smile, Finn wants to say something about the unrealistic pressures put on celebrities, constantly under surveillance. Smile 2 visualizes this pressure by using the same composition for what seems like 90 percent of the film: faces shot close-up and in center frame. This visual choice has potential for thematic elegance, blending theme and form by forcing the audience to stare at a person breaking down for our entertainment. In execution, however, Smile 2‘s visuals are exhausting. It takes a filmmaker as talented and misanthropic as Michael Haneke to berate the viewer for watching a movie that they did not make or even want (and even then, it’s still up for debate if Haneke pulled it off with either Funny Games).
Smile 2 falters for the same reason as its predecessor. While the idea of a trauma-fueled Smile Demon has potential, both movies deal with the issue in facile, surface level terms. Naomi Scott commits herself to playing a woman under the influence, but despite her willingness to be a raw nerve on camera, Skye Riley isn’t anything more than a poor little rich girl. The excesses of her life, from the shiny costumes to her gaudy apartment, overwhelm the viewer and make us resent their intrusion on the screen. But they never suggest that Riley is anything other than what she appears on the surface: a vapid pop star who has problems, but also far more resources to deal with them then any of the fans she politely humors.
Interesting stories have been told about uninteresting people, even those in heightened reality. But Finn undercuts any potential critique of excess by making Smile 2 equally excessive.
When not shooting his actors in center-frame close-ups, Finn does his own attention grabbing bravado shots. Joel’s pre-credit storyline is presented almost entirely in a visceral oner, something from an episode of True Detective. On more than one occasion, the camera flies through a scene and then turns upside down, constantly reminding viewers of its presence. It is hard to indict the viewers for staring at poor, beleaguered Skye when the camera won’t stop reminding us that we’re being shown these images by someone behind the scenes.
In a drama, these missteps would be distracting. But in a horror movie, the mistakes are disastrous. Smile 2 is best when it commits itself to pure horror, and the film does have some great spooks and some gory deaths. Finn proves himself adept at crafting different types of scares, ranging from stomach-churning (or, rather, stomach-ripping) gross outs to sustained suspense, to good ol’ jump scares. In the best sequence of the film, a crowd of smiling fans invade Skye’s apartment, contorting themselves like demented dancers as they invade her space and attempt to claim their pound of flesh.
Fun as these moments are, they also provide relief for the constant attention-demanding in the rest of the movie. And that’s a problem. The movie wants to charge us viewers with invading Skye’s space by constantly staring at her. The adversarial gambit backfires, making the viewers feel invaded by Skye constantly staring directly back at us. So instead of sympathizing with the pop star, a character that Scott does everything she can to imbue with humanity, viewers resent her and even take pleasure in the way the Smile Demon tortures her. At least then, the filmmaking becomes fun instead of grueling.
Smile 2 wants to explore the ethical problems of fandom and the pressure on regular people to be larger than life. But with its literal in-your-face visual style, disinterest in crafting a three-dimensional character, and sudden gore, Smile 2 has the exact opposite effect, leaving the viewer with no choice but to take pleasure in seeing bad things happen to the main character. And that’s not the viewer’s fault. That’s the fault of a movie that decided to stick the audience right in between a spoiled brat and her glossy problems.
Smile 2 releases on Oct. 18, 2024. Learn more about Den of Geek’s review process and why you can trust our recommendations here.
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