Smile 2 is bad in a way that also unravels writer/director Parker Finn's whole approach to filmmaking.
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2022's Smile may or may not be one of your favorite horror movies from the last five years, but it was undeniably one of the best marketed horror movies in recent memory. The idea was straight-forward. Hire a bunch of actors to look straight into camera with creepy smiles as public events. As soon as one got picked up, folks started noticing them everywhere and now you've got legit viral marketing to go behind your very cheap to produce horror flick. The end result was a giant smash that the genre hadn't seen in some time and as you expect with any successful horror movie with an evergreen premise, we've got a sequel with a bigger budget. Is it any good? Not really, but explaining why may also unravel writer/director Parker Finn's whole approach to filmmaking.
The Setup
Taking place about a week after the last movie, the film follows troubled pop star Skye Riley who is preparing for a comeback tour after a horrific accident that took the life of her actor boyfriend and left her with visible and mental scars. But all of that goes to hell when Skye visits her old drug dealer who inherited the curse and passes it on to her...
A lot of this review is going to be very unkind. Not because I think everything about the movie is bad, but because the final stretch of this movie revealed some pretty glaring limitations in Parker Finn's abilities as a storyteller. As such I'm going to give out a spoonful of sugar first with some compliments before digging into why I think this movie is bad.
Cool Bit #1: Strong Scary Scene Setups
The worry with revisiting the same premise is that there's not enough juice in the tank to scare audiences in new ways. Like ok, we've got the creepy smiling people. We get it. It's scary. Moving on.
Thankfully Finn and company have a couple of ideas to keep it fresh. The first is how ingratiated Skye's stardom and public facing nature is tied to these scenes. The down look with the wide eyes and big smile is always kind of creepy, but doubly so in a situation where our lead is supposed to maintain composure.
They also do a good job of weaving in and out of references to Skye's troubled past, including her physical pain that is tied to the traumatic accident, and there's a couple of really creepy scenes where Skye isn't facing down one creepy, she's facing down a bunch of them.
This is clearly when Finn is the most comfortable and seems to revel in the quick edits to shock the audience either with a gross-out/gory moment, a bit of violence or a reveal that the smiling face is/has advanced.
Cool Bit #2: Naomi Scott
Naomi Scott's performance in this movie is phenomenal. Now being the lead in a horror movie, whose entire life is falling apart, is harder than you might think because you need to be just abrasive enough to get why people are frustrated with you while earning enough sympathy/empathy to make you root for them. And on top of that, you need to be convincing as a pop music idol which means choreographed sequences, singing, and all of that.
And she nails every aspect. The shifts between her professionalism and her personhood coming out are fantastic and the desperation in her actions is so raw and real. So even when she's going completely off the deep end, you get why. Even the decision that led her to the curse, visiting her drug dealer, is easy to understand after you see her nearly eat it during dance rehearsal after a sharp bit of pain and seeing the physical scars she's trying to hide. I just wish the movie gave more to her character.
What's Wrong: Rules and Themes
One of the things that frustrated me about Smile 2 is that it made me look back at the original movie with different eyes. And it really looks like Parker Finn doesn't have much in the tank besides tormenting troubled women with their guilt/trauma and that said trauma in inescapable.
The first reason this came to mind is that there's a trick that Finn relies on to make the end of his movies hit hard, even if the logic is impossible to piece together. Reality warping.
Though it's never explained how, the entity in these movies clearly has the ability to torment the afflicted person with an image only they can see. Which in turn will prompt them to overreact, only to realize it was all in their head or that they've accidentally accosted an innocent person. Not a bad idea. Slight tweak on the same idea from It Follows.
So what's the limit to this reality warping? Apparently there isn't one. Now in the first movie this could slide by because the only things that "happened" were either possibilities that our hero was rejecting or the last little twist of the knife before the coup de grace. Our therapist Rose was still in and around the locations she was having these hallucinations at.
This time around? Time and space don't seem to matter. People appear who are later revealed to be the entity. There are entire days in Syke's life that do not happen with no explanation for what actually happened. Like imagine 20-30 minutes of the movie happening and then being told "that was all in her head" except those twenty minutes so much action and movement in and around different locations that you can't help but wonder what the hell was she actually doing in that moment. When did it start? No idea. But it conveniently ends right here so we can stage what the real point was, this horrific finale. It was such a jump that I said "F*** You" out loud.
And this is where the film's lack of interest in Skye as a character, and this franchise's glee in tormenting these women began to stand out.
Making your lead character a troubled pop star, with this general premise, is a genuinely great idea. Not just because your character is going to be in public all the time and will be easy to recognize if they lose their s***, but because the pressures of fame can and do amplify the feelings that would lead someone to substance abuse (of any kind). Especially if you know that your fame and fortune could all go away if you don't put things together. I also can't think of a better metaphor for addiction than something that makes you wildly unpredictable and hard to be around.
But here's a question Parker Finn doesn't seem to have any curiosity about: why do people turn to drugs and/or alcohol?
For something that's portrayed as a nearly life-destroying issue in the film, it's very strange to me that the movie isn't interested in what drives Skye to do drugs. The only real answer given in the movie is that she's still in pain from the surgeries after her accident and wants pain meds for her back. That's as reasonable as it gets...and also gives no insight into how/why she would develop a problem in the first place. Was she compensating for the pressure she was under? Was it the actor boyfriend's influence? What was the emotional thrust that pushed her to drugs? Couldn't tell you.
The addiction subplot seems to be window-dressing that's only there to drive the plot forward (it's how she meets the entity) or give people around Skye a viable reason why she's acting out of pocket. It's not a part of her character or life until the movie needs it be. And if we don't know Skye as a person, it's hard to invest in her journey or derive a theme/idea.
Let me put it another way. Smile 2 has the bones of a redemption arc movie. A put upon lead character dealing with extraordinary circumstances with skeletons in her closet that has a stacked deck against her. And the only time the movie seems to be really really interested in this journey, is when it can deny her and the audience, the satisfaction of success. This isn't a movie that's trying to send a message. It's trying to provoke. And that's it.
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