“Smile 2,” released on October 18, was one of the biggest anticipated releases, just in time for the Halloween season. I liked the first movie’s themes and plot, which made me more excited when I heard the sequel would be released this year. “Smile 2” had a much bigger budget, over $11 million more than the first movie, which kept my expectations high.
Similar to the first movie, “Smile 2” is centered around disorienting the viewer. It starts where the last movie left off, the ex boyfriend of the previous victim, Joel, tries to pass along the curse without killing himself in the process.He succeeds in passing it along, but ultimately dies quickly afterwards. The chain continues until it gets to our main character, the pop star Skye Riley, played by Naomi Scott. We watch as Skye’s sanity spirals as the curse takes a hold of her, causing her vivid auditory and visual hallucinations over the next few days. In the end, no matter how much she tries, she can’t beat the curse and ends up taking her own life in front of an audience of fans on a concert stage, passing the curse to thousands.
Opinions and reviews of “Smile 2” are mixed, some having said the cinematography and story have outdone its predecessor, while others say it’s nothing but gore and scares with little plot or franchise expansion. Though I agree with both sides, my review leans towards the more negative side. Though I found the movie enjoyable, I do have some critiques. The movie itself was beautiful, its lighting, perspective shots and sound design really made the film eerie and incredibly disorienting. The one area lacking, however, was the plot. My expectations were set in a similar style to the first movie, where the curse would be passed onto the last character to inherit it, Joel, and we would follow his story as he navigates the curse. Instead, “Smile 2” skipped that plot line in favor of killing off Joel in the beginning with an action sequence.
There were a lot more jump scares in this movie, happening every couple minutes or so. It was a far cry from the first movie, where they relied on cheap and reused scares instead of suspense building or giving the main character a personality that we can sympathize with so it ends up being more scary when something does happen. It made me both love and hate the movie all at once. The jump scares were played out well, and really showed the progress and effort put into this movie, but I think they were overused and got predictable towards the end. The first movie contrasted with this greatly. Though one of the jump scares was spoiled in the trailer, they were well done and spaced out. The ending sequence of that movie relied a lot on body horror and a feeling of helplessness, which I did feel in the second movie but it wasn’t as powerful.
Like many other sequel movies, this one falls short for me. Even with the increase in budget, I feel like fans, including myself, were looking for something different. Overall I would rate “Smile 2” a three out of five. I didn’t like it as much as the first movie, but the scares and the visuals were better than the first, and artistry is half of what makes a good movie. I would like to see if a third movie does come out, and if it does, hopefully it goes back to its roots and explores more of the story.
