What a year for popstar horror, a sub genre I didn’t think existed until maybe a few months ago. Trap gave us Lady Raven’s concert as the centerpiece of a murderous manhunt, and now we have Skye Riley with her tour in jeopardy thanks to a murderous, smiling spirit. This is what Chappel Roan was trying to warn us about!

I thought 2022’s Smile was admittedly better than expected, which wasn’t hard to achieve since expectations were already subterranean. Sorry, but Truth or Dare ruined any chance of me finding warped, Kubrick-esque smiles scary. Still, director Parker Finn did manage to inject some level of sophistication into what would otherwise be a college short film type premise. It juggled the depression metaphors of the quote unquote elevated horror genre, while also being chock full of cheap jumpscares that picked up the slack for the film’s lack of tension, to what I would call a moderate success. And a financial one, which means we might just have a new horror franchise on our hands. Yippee.

Smile 2 ends up being more of the same but comes in a much more appealing, intriguing shell. Putting the focus on a traumatized pop star dealing with the demons of her past makes for an impactful premise that does manage to say a little something about the pressures of the music industry and self accountability. The camera work is slick and the sprinklings of gore are impressively bloody and brutal, but if you were looking for a new spin on the premise or even an expansion of the film’s otherworldly force, you might be disappointed. The final product does manage to give moviegoers a fun, spooky time, but if you’re like me, you may find yourself frustrated with its predictability and lopsided scares.

Skye Riley is a pop star on her comeback tour after the death of her boyfriend and recovering from substance abuse. As if that wasn’t stressful enough, she comes into contact with an unseen force that makes her see hallucinations of smiling people that makes her question her own reality. And blah blah blah, insert Justin Timberlake quote here.

A setup like this doesn’t work unless your lead is giving their all, and thankfully Naomi Scott does bring it. You never really think she’s anything other than a music megastar, yet her own guilt and self-hatred over her past does humanize her enough to feel grounded for us normies. While her grapples with trauma don’t necessarily say anything different from what the main character in the first film experienced, narrowing the view to the music industry does make it a bit more intriguing. From manipulative manager moms to creepy superfans, it’s all admittedly a lot, though I kind of wish it all led to something a bit more revelatory for the character. The film is quite bleak, and I think that would have worked better if the character of Skye Riley experienced more change over the course of the film than a simple haunting. Really the most strenuous thing she goes through is her chugging multiple of those big ass Voss water bottles in one go. Go piss girl!

I’m a bit mixed on the scares in this. On one hand, I think there’s some really well paced, slow moments that hit with suitable payoff. There’s a naked man in the dark that gave me real Hereditary vibes, while a wriggling mass of smiling backup dancers lead to a slightly goofy but well structured onslaught. And yeah, some of the jump scares are actually pretty smart and effective, but not all of them. A lot of them boil down to blindsiding you with a loud noise out of nowhere, and I just think it feels lazy at times, like they forgot to write something spooky into a scene so they just throw a quick face in there. Luckily the blood and guts, in the few times we do see them, is quite good. The practical and digital effects are so seamless and revolting and lead to an ample amount of blood. And I’m sorry to say again, but yeah, the smiling thing isn’t all that scary to me. I think it’s overdone at this point and just makes me laugh more than anything. I don’t know, maybe they should try a different expression? Maybe not a smile but that smug Dreamworks smirk? I’d crap myself if everyone around me just started doing that.

The entity in this isn’t given a ton of explanation and structure, which isn’t a bad thing. I like when there’s vagueness to a creature that can’t always be explained by some expert. But at the same time, like the first film, I did find the rules to be a bit too loose and convenient for my taste. There’s never a lot of consistency to when and how the spirit can affect you. In theory it should give the monster some unpredictability, but it actually had the adverse effect on me, to the point where I clued in to exactly where the film would end up, meaning that a lot of the struggles Skye goes through feel all for not way earlier than they should. It doesn’t help that the film plays out almost exactly to the last one, with the same hoops being jumped through from the introduction of the evil, to the realization of what the MC is up against, to their attempts to stop it. It all ends with grim implications that actually reflect Truth or Dare’s ending more than the first film’s, and while I found it predictable I still think it was darkly fun.

I definitely enjoyed Smile 2 more than its predecessor despite its similarities. The struggles of the tortured pop star are far more engaging, due in part to an all-in performance from Scott. The scares aren’t always the most well structured, but the bulk of the film still maintains tight editing and admirable pacing, even if I think it goes on a bit long. At the end of the day I think it’s a super simple but effective melding of different horror tastes that I think will be genuine crowd pleaser for most. If this franchise is to keep going forward though, it needs a complete makeover of its premise and structure, because I really don’t see how this exact story can work a third time without me getting bored. Keep the editing, keep the practical effects, ditch the need to throw a spooky face out of nowhere.

RATING

GRIN & TONIC

Smiles can often be bitter sweet, hiding something beneath the surface. But the Grin & Tonic has nothing to hide; it’s an in your face, bitter cocktail that’s reigned in thanks to some welcome herbal and citrus notes. A bit of a cross between a gin and tonic and an Aperol spritz, this bubbly, slightly Christmas-spiced cocktail may just have you grinning from ear to ear, whether it be from a pair of demon hands or not.

INGREDIENTS

• 2oz gin
• 1/2oz sloe gin
• 1/2oz tart cherry juice
• 1/2oz Aperol
• Top: tonic water
• 3 dashes orange bitters
• Garnish: orange peel

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Add gin, sloe gin, cherry juice Aperol and bitters to a tall glass with ice.
2. Top with tonic water.
3. Garnish with an orange peel in the shape of a smile.