‘Smile 2’ Review: Superior Sequel Raises the Horror Stakes and Volume

Say cheese! There’s one thing to be enthusiastic about this October, and that is a horror sequel that outshines its predecessor. That’s proper, “Smile 2,” the sequel to 2022’s shock hit “Smile,” is greater, gorier and even crazier than the primary movie, and it even has one thing attention-grabbing to say via these tight-lipped grins.

After skewering the traumatic development of horror movies in “Smile,” writer-director Parker Finn moved on to larger and higher metaphors in his sequel. It additionally takes the diabolically silly/intelligent gadget of the “smile demon” and explodes it on a a lot bigger scale. Instead of a therapist catching an infectious pressure of PTSD from a affected person, right here a really well-known pop star, Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), struggling along with her personal private issues, catches the illness from her drug supplier, Lewis ( Lukas Gage), the unlucky recipient of the final movie’s remaining host, transferred right into a bravura one-take opening sequence.

Transplanting this gadget into hypervisible movie star offers Finn the prospect to play on an even bigger stage, producing stylized musical numbers, backstage antics, public meltdowns, fan frenzy and personal angst in Skye’s luxurious gilded cage. It reunites the “Smile” inventive group, together with cinematographer Charlie Sarroff, editor Elliot Greenberg and composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer, and with the success of the final movie behind them, they’re unleashed to make one thing even crazier .

Finn and Sarroff stage a number of sequences in lengthy takes, with the digital camera swinging backwards and forwards, facet to facet, to seize trigger and impact, terror and response. This requires an distinctive efficiency from Scott, who greater than performs the troubled Skye. This is a very vanity-free, borderline hysterical twist over the two-hour-plus runtime, requiring Scott to dive into Skye’s previous as an out-of-control drug addict and convey her crumbling present actuality, underneath assault. from the terrifying intrusive visions he gathered from this smile monster.

Much of the movie is Scott’s response as Skye to what she sees as she is stricken by visions that mirror her biggest fears: stalker followers, the violent automotive crash that killed her boyfriend (Ray Nicholson ), her inside circle of belief turning towards her. All conveyed with a smile: chin lowered, eyes raised, enamel bared. She is in public nearly each time one in all these incidents of darkish fantasy happens – on stage in rehearsal, at an award presentation, at a meet and greet – continuously photographed by digital camera telephones wherever she goes. This additionally makes a demonic passage finally extra harmful. If the “parasite” wants its new host to witness the primary one disappear after every week of possession, properly, Skye definitely has quite a lot of eyes on her.

We all agree with the joke in “Smile 2,” however Finn takes his horror metaphor critically, utilizing Skye’s habit and psychological well being points as a solution to place the smile demon as a illustration of habit , inflicting destruction to all these round her. Skye is decided to take management of this factor, prepared to sacrifice herself so long as she will save others.

However, this heavy theme doesn’t hinder the campy thrills of “Smile 2”, skillfully delivered with sincerity and simply sufficient humor by Scott, who in each scene of the movie tears his soul – and his vocal cords – to items. . While Scott has appeared in high-profile reboots like “Aladdin,” “Charlie’s Angels” and “Power Rangers,” this looks like an actual success for her, demonstrating a much wider vary as a possessed lady. (Is it sacrilege to counsel that I typically have the slightest inkling of Isabelle Adjani’s loopy efficiency of “Possession”)?

Finn delivers greater and much more efficient bounce scares than final time, which is able to ship the popcorn flying. The sound design booms and thunders, the delusions are much more elaborate, and the physique horror is even bloodier and extra disturbing. While the third act will get a bit of phantasmagorically dragged out and barely uncontrolled, Finn manages to get the whole lot again on monitor, offering the one becoming ending to one of many yr’s wildest horror rides.

Katie Walsh is a movie critic for Tribune News Service.