It has been a real mixed bag for sequels in the film world this year. Just a week ago, the release of Joker: Folie A Deux was met with much less enthusiasm than its predecessor five years ago, with its novelty value and experimental villain origin story: its strange, brave yet stunningly disappointing follow-up has suffered record box office losses and scathing reviews. Similarly, Furiosa slumped at the box office, despite good word of mouth and huge praise for George Miller, while others all felt like one sequel too many, while others all felt like one sequel too many. Still, a few excelled, and, excitingly, Parker Finn’s return to the world of Smile, a huge hit two years ago, delivers that rarity – a sophomore effort exceeding the original in almost every way.
Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) is a hugely successful singer/songwriter on the comeback trail after an accident a year ago that left her scarred in more ways than one and killed her partner Paul Hudson (Ray Nicholson, son of Mr. Smile himself, Jack). Desperately trying to quiet her demons and put her energies into a massive comeback tour, Skye soon begins to experience inexplicable events that no one else around her – her tour team, her mother (Rosemarie DeWitt), or friend Gemma (Dylan Gelula) – can see. Are her demons resurfacing at the worst time, or is there some startling entity preying on Skye’s current plight?
Stemming from his impressive short Laura Hasn’t Slept which debuted in 2020, Finn’s feature adaptation caught everyone unawares, excelling both as a truly scary film, but also as one which tapped into the human condition with all its eccentricities and ailments, especially when it came to trauma and all the chasms it can open in our minds, conscious and unconscious. With the sequel, rather than falling into the trap of going bigger and scarier for the sake of it, Finn moves from trauma into themes around mental health and the stigma that remains around them all, with Scott’s electrifying singer Skye, plagued with guilt, depression, and crippling anxiety.
Such psychological issues can cause an avalanche of damage and when the curse takes hold, many around Skye believe she is just acting and that her feelings and fears are not real, making the entity at the centre of the story, and by extension, the film’s tension, become even more profound and unnerving. Furthermore, It also taps into the pressures of fame and the overwhelming demands on the current crop of pop superstars who spend so much of their time touring the world. Fans, paparazzi, and social media simply cannot get enough of them and that translates into struggles with alcohol and drugs, as well as the loss of privacy.
Indeed, with this being a horror film, you’re all here for the scares and they are plentiful, with Finn’s expert hand guiding us through shocks, creepy camera angles that feel like you’re truly spinning, and unsettling set-pieces – one which includes Scott’s backing dancers in a brilliantly unnerving sequence – that will get under the skin. There are some moments where the scares feel a little forced but for the few that don’t quite land, the success ratio is very high.
Whilst praise for Finn as a writer and director cannot be overstated, all the real credit goes to Scott and her electrifying and fearless turn at the centre of the madness. Easily her finest performance thus far in her short career (her other highlight being a brilliant Jasmine in the underwhelming Aladdin live-action remake), she excels with everything thrown at her. It’s a tortuous and sad journey she will embark on but she throws herself into it superbly well, bringing pathos, poignancy, and humour to a role that could have become ludicrous and overwrought without such deftness and charisma.
In a year where the horror genre and its sub-genres have thrived once again – from Late Night With The Devil’s haunting found footage tale to the cold, cryptic workings of Longlegs and the rulebook-breaking In A Violent Nature – Smile 2 joins them in the upper echelons of the year’s finest scare fests. Perhaps even more impressive is how it balances its horror elements with some strong, powerful undercurrents that feel timely and important. And, with writer/director Finn holding some of the series’ true nature under lock and key for now, there’s more to come from this grinning grotesque.
Rating: 4/5
Smile 2 is in UK cinemas on October 17th.
