Movie Review: Smile 2

Smile 2 isn't so much a fresh take on what audiences saw in the original film 2 short years ago as it is confirmation that writer/director Parker Finn and this franchise are the real fucking deal. There's a world where Finn gets complacent after the surprising breakout success of Smile-which marked his directorial debut and only makes the sequel to collect a check. Fortunately, we're not living in that one. In fact, Finn is downright giddy to return to the horrifying, bleak universe he authored, and he found the perfect vessel to do so by making a pop star (Naomi Scott) attempting to mount a comeback after spending a year away from the spotlight after enduring a personal tragedy the next person to be afflicted by the "Smile Curse". The story deals with the suffocating horror of a woman trying to get her life back on track while being in the public eye and not having any that cares about her wellbeing in her inner circle since their incomes are dictated by the success or failure of her career. Scott shines by tapping into the ignored humanity of a woman whose been under the brutally unforgiving pop culture microscope for most of her life, and Finn does an exceptional job of using the protagonist's celebrity status to create a string of viscerally nightmarish sequences that play with the specific horrors of having every detail of your life broadcast to the public. You can probably guess the final destination of this journey based on the brief synopsis above, but that doesn't make the disorienting, dread-fueled ride to get there any less compelling or the closing frames any less unsettling.    

When the book is written on studio horror films of the 2020's, Smile 2 should be prominently featured. Finn's visual eye and ability to marry jump scares with grotesque gory imagery and slow-burning dread that pours off the screen are so strong it's almost hard to believe that this is only his second feature. Whether he returns to the Smile universe or decides to embark on another challenge, I'll be eagerly awaiting what he cooks up next.                                  

Grade: B+