Parker Finn’s ‘Smile 2’ Screams Bigger and Louder With a Wrenching Naomi Scott

Alci Rengifo

Naomi Scott may just be crowned a definite scream queen with Parker Finn’s “Smile 2.” She is the best thing about this sequel that in every way tries to outdo its predecessor. Finn’s original 2022 “Smile” was an entertaining, low-budget premise where the driving theme was trauma. Its grinning demon feeds off the emotionally scarred psyches of its victims. Classic horror tropes were effectively used like the idea of “tagging” someone else to get stuck with the curse. Whereas the original’s main character was a shrink, Finn now goes for the ultimate allegory by focusing on a pop star. Overwrought and a bit too long, Scott still helps the movie deliver a nonstop screamathon where she gives it emotional heft.

The movie opens with a quick link to the original. Joel (Kyle Gallner), the cop whose love interest (Sosie Bacon) died from the demonic curse he now has, tries to pass it on to some drug dealers before meeting his own end. Cut to Skye Riley (Scott), a big pop star making a comeback after losing her movie star boyfriend (Ray Nicholson) in a brutal car crash a year before. After a spiral into drugs and alcohol, Skye appears to have it back together. When she runs out of Vicodin for her back pain, she runs to meet an old friend named Lewis (Lukas Gage) to get some more. Too bad for her, it turns out Lewis was present at the opening bloodbath involving Joel, meaning he now is cursed by the demon. Possessed and already high on cocaine, Lewis bashes his face in with a workout weight. Now Skye is the demon’s new project. 

Given more freedom by the success of “Smile,” Finn clearly has many ideas and tries to harmonize them in a sequel. We’re essentially getting two movies in “Smile 2.” One is an ear-splitting carnival ride of jump scares. The other is a drama about a celebrity unable to escape her traumas. The latter is more compelling because of Naomi Scott’s fully committed performance. Her delivery is no easy task. She’s doing angst, paranoia, sleep deprivation, sorrow and sheer terror all on screen, being in virtually every scene. On top of that, we can truly buy her as a burned out pop star. She has the look and charisma while being made to dress and sing like a hybrid of Taylor Swift and Britney Spears. Finn crafts his best scares to fuse with commentary on celebrity life. An eerie girl with “the Smile” appears just as Skye is signing t-shirts and taking photos with fans, one who turns out to be a total maniac. Her lavish apartment becomes a shadowy den of eerie specters. Some get overplayed, like one who keeps appearing on cue with a gross, fleshy sound effect. Ironically, the most truly frightening scenes are Skye’s flashbacks to the crash that killed her boyfriend. 

Finn’s screenplay does a great job creating Skye’s world with handlers like an assistant played so well by Miles Gutierrez-Riley, we could easily assume he’s been the real thing. Rosemarie DeWitt is a mother from hell, clearly caring more about the tour and record label demands than for her superstar daughter’s own health. Gemma (Dylan Gelula) is the best friend who Skye pushed away during her crisis, now coming back to help. Alas, this is not meant to be “Vox Lux” but a full throttle horror film. The first “Smile” took its time to explore the angst in Sosie Bacon’s haunted therapist eternally scarred by her mother’s suicide. It subtly dropped clues and hints, before giving us the now famous shots of someone slowly turning around with a creepy smile, revealing they have the curse. In “Smile 2,” we get one every two minutes with nonstop jump scares in Skye’s apartment, rehearsal space and out in public. Eventually the gore in the form of gouged eyes, slit necks and torn jaws loses its impact, though Finn seems to realize this and stages skillful suspense involving hospital escapes or dream sequences. Dark humor lightens up some of the scares too, like a scene where Skye needs to present at a charity event and melts down, taking out her rage on a little old lady onstage.

Into the third act, “Smile 2” has set ups that would pay off in a leaner movie, such as a plotline involving Morris (Peter Jacobson), a nurse who claims he can rid Skye of her curse if she lets him stop her heart for a few minutes. What eventually threatens to make the movie wobble is how the climax becomes one of those annoying rug pulls on the audience. Without spoiling, Skye’s journey culminates in a confusing moment involving the roaring demon in its fleshy, bloody form (as seen in the last movie) and the old idea of, “It was just a dream.” Was it? Is Finn really telling us the last two hours are rendered meaningless? Or is it just confused editing? Good directors like Finn, with impressive style and an eye for casting, shouldn’t let gimmicks get in the way of their story. “Smile 2” nonetheless will entertain as a roller coaster giving audiences what they crave this Halloween season. After the season is over, what will linger is Naomi Scott’s memorable performance where she becomes a genuinely terrified profile of entrapped stardom.

“Smile 2” releases Oct. 18 in theaters nationwide.