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Smile 2 Movie Review

Smile 2 is a 2024 psychological supernatural horror film directed by Parker Finn and starring Naomi Scott. It’s another solid, but not great entry in this series.

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“You’re not in control, I am!“

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About to embark on a new world tour, global pop sensation Skye Riley begins to experience increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events. Overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and pressures of fame, she must face her dark past to regain control of her life before it spirals out of control. This is a sequel to the 2022 original and it’s pretty much similar to its predecessor. I preferred this movie due to its more ambitious filmmaking, but still both films share the same pitfalls.

I am talking about the franchise having a very simple premise that is not ripe for feature storytelling. Once again we get a story that feels repetitive and overlong at two hours. This movie is just the protagonist seeing numerous people making menacing, creepy smiling faces and it’s not much more than that to be honest. It’s fun, don’t get me wrong, but not quite substantial, especially not for what is a pretty long film.

Naomi Scott is very good in the main role. At times I could see her acting, especially in the moments where she had to be the most deranged, which she didn’t fully sell, but for the most part she was believable and very charismatic. A lot of the greatness of her character hinges on the hair and make-up team as she pretty much looks like your regular contemporary pop star. Skye Riley is truly a great character and the best reason to see this entire flick.

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Smile 2 is also much more ambitious than the original as the budget was much bigger. We got better cinematography here, stronger production design and a pretty good score. The editing, directing and dialogue are all pretty good. A couple of strong action set pieces were so well executed and quite dynamic. The beginning and the ending are the highlights while the middle section was overlong and repetitious.