“Smile 2” released in theaters Oct. 18 to primarily positive reviews from both critics and audiences. The film is a sequel to the 2022 film, “Smile.” The first film created buzz with its psychological horror aspects, but it did not solidify itself as a classic to the genre.
Despite this, the popularity of the film drew enough attention to gain itself a sequel, which was announced in April 2023 at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. The cast was announced in late 2023 through early 2024 and included Naomi Scott, Lukas Gage, Rosemarie DeWitt, Dylan Gelula, Raúl Castillo and Miles Gutierrez-Riley. Kyle Gallner was announced to be returning as the first film left his plot line unresolved.
“Smile 2” takes some of the best psychological aspects of the original film and boosts it, which creates a uniquely horrifying film while also capturing audiences’ attention.
Spoilers ahead for “Smile 2″
The film follows Grammy-winner Skye Riley as she prepares for her first tour following a car crash, resulting in the death of her boyfriend — all while dealing with substance abuse issues. During her tour, Skye evades her mother and assistant to buy Vicodin from a drug dealer previously shown to have inherited the smile curse. After witnessing his death, she then inherits the curse.
Much like the first film, Skye begins to hallucinate strangers eerily smiling at her from concert crowds and galas. The plot continues with her falling victim to the parasite-like entity that has now consumed her life and follows her around.
With every leap forward, Skye also takes three steps back, as some of her actions are shown to be manipulated by the entity — Skye thought she was simply witnessing the entity stab her mother when in fact she was the one who broke a mirror and stabbed her.
The film concludes with the entity possessing Skye while also revealing the fact that the last few days were actually a hallucination and those who she witnessed die were actually still alive. While possessed, the entity kills Skye by forcing her to stab herself with her microphone.
One of the unique things about this film is the fact that while we follow Skye for most of it, the end shows us both what’s actually happening and what Skye thinks is happening. While Skye is being possessed and killed by the entity, all the concertgoers see is Skye choking, collapsing and committing suicide.
It is absolutely horrifying and makes for a really compelling and intricate plot line for audiences. If you were to take out the entity entirely, the film would be just as frightening.
In-world fans would only see their favorite artist struggle with PTSD from a loved-one’s death that they inadvertently caused, and the aftermath of that being substance abuse which led to other mental illnesses and eventually suicide.
Kyle Gallner’s reprise of his original character kicked off the film but died almost immediately which left some fans annoyed by the writing. That being said, the film was an improvement from the original, and left fans with a devastating yet captivating story.
The film grossed $23 million in its opening weekend and is in theaters now.
