The secret to Smile’s success was its simplicity. Basically a demon inhabits a host and then haunts them until they end up killing themselves in front of a witness. That witness then becomes the host of the demon. The only way a person could free themselves from the demon without killing themselves was to murder somebody else in front of a witness so the demon once again jumps to that witness. Yes it was a dark and twisted tale – but cinema audiences truly embraced it.
Director/writer Parker Finn returns for Smile 2 and this time around he seems determined to tell the story from a different angle.
The film opens with the previous film’s last ‘witness’, police officer Joel (Kyle Gallner – Strange Darling) trying the second approach to rid himself of the demon. But his plan of murdering a drug dealer in front of another dealer goes horribly wrong and results in the demon jumping to small-time crim Lewis (Lukas Gage – The White Lotus).
And that is where pop-star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott – Aladdin) comes into the picture. Buoyed on by her mother (Rosemarie DeWitt – Rachel Getting Married) and manager (Raul Castillo – Army Of The Dead), Skye is trying to re-invent her career after a very public drug habit that resulted in a car accident that killed her celebrity boyfriend and left her with a scarred body and lingering injuries.
After a concert rehearsal sees her back pain return, she hits up Lewis to score some painkillers off him. However, that meeting ends in disaster with the delusional and haunted Lewis killing himself in front of her – which now means the demon jumps to her.
What follows is a pretty intense film that sees Finn explore deep themes such as over-bearing stage parents and the pitfalls of being a celebrity. As you watch the film you find some of the stories correlating with the demise and troubled lives of so many modern-day pop-stars. Ironically in a lot of territories this film’s release coincided with the tragic death of former One Direction member Liam Payne.
Smile 2 is at its best when it explores those themes. Scenes of Skye trying to rekindle past friendships that she burnt during her drug addiction take the audience on a journey of suspense and are a reminder of how horror films can still have meaningful dramatic scenes and still work.
Often during Smile 2 it is the scenes of watching Skye battle with her drug addiction or trying to unsuccessfully tell her family and manager that she is not ready to go out on the stage again that are more harrowing to watch than the actual gory scenes.
Where Smile 2 falls away though is when it tries to use Skye’s delusion as a way to ‘fool’ its audience. Some of those tricks work remarkably well while some are just lame and leave the audience feeling ‘ripped-off’ rather than impressed. That is not a feeling that you want your audience to be feeling as they leave the cinema… that’s a painful lesson that the team behind Joker: Folie A Deux have just learnt.
The other irony with Smile 2 is that it is the more natural scenes that make the film work rather than the ‘delusions’. The opening sequence of Joel trying to cast off the demon is some of the most dramatic and suspenseful cinema that you will see this year – it is just a shame that Parker Finn didn’t realise that if he had kept up that tone throughout the film he could have made Smile 2 a much more powerful film.
The one person that can hold their head high with their work on this film is Naomi Scott. She is brilliant throughout with a performance where she focuses more on her character’s inner pain rather than reacting to the horror around her. Performances this strong in the horror genre are rare these days and she should be proud of the work she has done here.
Credit must also go to Kyle Gallner. While he isn’t in the film for very long his performance here alongside the work he did in Strange Darling is proof of why he is one of the most promising actors in Hollywood at the moment.
Smile 2 is better than the original film but doesn’t seem to realise that the film is at its most powerful when it focuses more on characterisation and suspense rather than fooling its audience with supposed ‘delusions’. They are a foolish point in the plot that does little more than frustrate the audience. Still this film does more than enough to make me want to see Smile 3 go into production.
Smile 2 is currently screening in Phuket and is rated ‘18’.
3/5 Stars
David Griffiths has been working as a film journalist for over 25 years. That time has seen him work in radio, television and in print. He currently hosts a film podcast called The Popcorn Conspiracy. He is also a Rotten Tomatoes accredited reviewer and is an alternate judge for the Golden Globes Awards. You can follow him at Facebook: SubcultureEntertainmentAus