Movie Review: Smile 2
I’m late to the party on Smile 2, which came out in the middle of October, but I just watched it for the first time a few days ago as it just hit streaming. A busy schedule of movies and life got in the way of me seeing this in theaters, but I’m happy I was able to check the movie out before the end of the year because Smile 2 might have shaken things up at the top of my favorite movies of 2024. This is an exceptional horror sequel that is loaded with terror and features one of the great horror movie performances of the decade.
Naomi Scott stars Skye Riley, a global pop star who is coming back following a horrific accident that killed her then-boyfriend. As she gets ready to go on a major tour to get her reputation back, she witnesses the death of a person and becomes possessed by The Smile Curse, which messes with her perception of time and reality and leads to dire consequences.
What makes Smile 2 a great horror sequel is that if you took out all the horror elements, the movie would still be good. Reminiscent of other great horror movies in recent years like Ari Aster’s Hereditary, Smile 2 is a movie that focuses on its story and characters while also succeeding in scaring the hell out of us. The movie at its core is about a woman who is trying to get back to normalcy and she deals with the guilt of her actions, her mental health, and the stress and anxiety that comes with fame. That alone sounds like a good movie, but then adding moments of true terror by embedding us into the mind of our main character so that we are as confused and terrified as she is. It’s a dizzying, chaotic, and visceral experience, especially during the final third of the film, leading up to a haunting finale.
Much of Smile 2’s success lands on the shoulders of Naomi Scott, who gives easily the best performance of her young career. Scott is required to carry the emotional weight of the film, and she does so by effortlessly transitioning between emotions. What starts as a pop star excited to start a new chapter in her life quickly turns into a woman succumbing to guilt and slowly descending into madness because of this curse. She is believable as a pop star, empathetic as a woman haunted by guilt, and does a superb job of being terrified. It is outstanding work from Scott in one of the best performances of 2024.
Smile 2 is better than the first film in every way. It’s more intense, bloodier, gorier, and genuinely creepier than the first film and is and features a captivating story and brilliant lead performance at its center. It is one of the best horror sequels of the last ten years.
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