Smile by director Parker Finn was the biggest surprise horror hit of 2022. A huge part of its success can be attributed to its viral marketing on social media and the great performances of its cast, though the movie still depended on a lot of cheap jump scares. Two years later, Finn returns with a sequel with a mostly new cast, so does this one bring a smile to our faces? Read on to find out.

Turn That Frown Upside Down

The plot and story of Smile is essentially a rehash or a reskin of the first Smile. The structure and progression are identical, albeit with a different setting and protagonist. This time, instead of a psychiatric hospital and a therapist as the protagonist, we have New York City and a famous pop star named Skye Riley, played by actress Naomi Scott. Scott definitely carries the movie on her back, delivering a deranged performance of a person being tormented by a trauma demon. We also get to see her struggling with pressures of the being a famous pop star and how much that takes a mental toll on her, which is probably the most interesting aspect of the movie because everything else is predictable.

If you’ve seen the first Smile and loved it, then Smile 2 is just more of the same. Skye gets infected by the same demon and curse, which kickstarts her descent into madness. Just like the first movie, the main theme and subject matter of Smile 2 is exploring trauma, how trauma affects a person’s mental state and how the Smile Demon (that’s what fans of the first movie are calling it) exploits (as well as feeds on) that trauma. Smile 2 doesn’t offer anything new that we haven’t seen in the first movie, with the exception of perhaps better kills and a bigger budget that provides better-looking cinematography and production sets.

Most of the scares in Smile 2 are based on cheap jump scares just like the first movie. It falls short of having much of a creepy or sinister atmosphere, unlike some of the better horror movies this year such as Longlegs or The First Omen. However, the director has clearly had more freedom to do what he wanted in Smile 2, crafting more creative kills that are way more gorier and more brutal compared to the relatively tame kills in the first one. If nothing else, horror fans can at least appreciate the more gory kills. This is one of the few aspects that Smile 2 improves on from its predecessor.

While the pacing of the movie doesn’t feel draggy, Smile 2 still feels overextended because it breaks the general cardinal rule of horror movies: never be more than 2 hours long. This results in the movie feeling overstretched beyond what it can offer, and some viewers might find the pacing to be a bit slow because of that reason. Smile 2 would have been much improved if it had been cut down to a more reasonable duration for conventional horror movies (there’s a reason why most horror movies are around 90 minutes long on average).

All Smiles?

Ultimately, Smile 2 is more of the same if you’ve watched 2022’s Smile, following a similar plot and structure as the first movie. Horror fans can still enjoy the gory and bloody kills, as well as the performance of lead actress, Naomi Scott. However, Smile 2 could have been a much better movie if the director had taken more risks and done something different in this sequel.

FINAL SCORE: 60/100

We attended a press screening of Smile 2 courtesy of United International Pictures Malaysia. Smile 2 premieres in Malaysian cinemas on 17 October 2024.