Smile 2 (2024)

Despite the fact that one of the best scare moments was unwisely shown in the trailer for the movie, Smile was a horror movie that I quite enjoyed when it was released a couple of years ago. I haven't ever revisited it, and I didn't think it needed a sequel, but I was more than happy to get to Smile 2 whenever the opportunity arose. It took a while, but the opportunity finally arose.

Naomi Scott plays Skye Riley, a pop star about to embark on a major world tour after some time spent recovering from some major troubles (including a car crash that left her scarred, but lucky to be alive). Things start to get tricky when she ends up as the next in a chain of people who have all been targeted by the demonic entity that drives people insane as they see sinister smiles everywhere.

With Parker Finn back for the writing and directing duties, and making use of one main character from the last film to create a solid continuity leading into this story, this should have been a way to take things in some interesting and creative directions. Sadly, Finn seems more interested in ensuring that there's a bottle of Voss water visible in every main sequence. I wish I was joking. Take a shot of your preferred strong spirit of choice every time someone grabs or drinks a Voss and you will be lapsing into unconsciousness by the halfway point, easily. Are there some good moments here? Yes, but there aren't enough of them to warrant the lengthy runtime, considering how many other moments are disappointingly predictable and staid.

A couple of impressive death scenes will make most viewers jump and wince, and there's a sequence that has a large group of people performing an evil and twisted riff on a dance routine shown much earlier in the movie, but this thing clocks in at 127-minutes. That's too long, especially when the third act feels far too close to the third act of the first film.

Scott makes it watchable though. She's absolutely fantastic for every minute of her screentime, convincing as a pop superstar, and just as convincing when offstage and struggling to keep her celebrity responsibilities at bay as she becomes more vulnerable and scared. Rosemarie DeWitt is also very good, playing her mother/manager, and there are solid performances from Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Lukas Gage, Dylan Gelula, and Peter Jacobson.

This should have been something special. It should have been wild, it should have been a big step up from the original, and it should have left you feeling that Finn had a clear reason, aside from money, to revisit this territory. Sadly, it's just toothless. And that's not usually a good thing for any smile.

4/10

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