With the spooky season coming to an end, movie directors are racing to find the next big scare to thrill horror movie fanatics and close out the season with a bang. Although it seems like every scary concept has already been executed, director Parker Finn released Smile 2, the sequel to his 2022 blockbuster film Smile, which The New York Times refers to as “bigger, bloodier, and more compelling” than the original.
The story follows actress Naomi Scott as Skye Riley, an international pop star who is preparing for her comeback tour after a car crash killed her boyfriend and sent her down a spiral of drug addiction. After watching her ex-drug dealer commit suicide, Riley becomes infected by the smile curse and begins to see hallucinations of people grinning at her and ambushing her. Although she attempts to reach out for help, no one is able to believe her due to these non-existent visions that only she can see.
In this sequel, it’s evident that Parker Finn took several risks after the success of the first film with the addition of unique jumpscares and graphic gore scenes. However, both movies still follow the same structure with a premise of trauma. While the smile curse targets those affected by traumatic events, Finn chose two vastly different characters for each of the movies to show how people are affected differently. The first Smile movie follows psychologist Rose Cotter, who has lingering childhood pain from her mother’s suicide. The film demonstrates the effects of the curse on Rose’s relationships with others, including her husband and sister. Conversely, Riley’s curse and trauma from the car crash seems to have a larger effect on her career and recovery progress. The cinematography in the sequel definitely was more intentional in devising the story with its connections to Riley’s trauma. Finn included several scenes where the perspective turns upside down, a reference to the car crash where Riley was left upside down with severe injuries next to her dead boyfriend. With a higher budget than the original film, Finn was able to freely express his creativity and ideas in his direction of the sequel.
During my viewing of the film last Saturday, I found myself parched and craving a cold glass of water, not only because of my dry mouth from the terrifying jumpscares, but also from the numerous amounts of Voss waters Riley drinks throughout the movie. While it may appear as a money-grab with this prominent sponsorship, it actually plays into the film’s themes of sobriety and addiction. Riley uses chugging a bottle of water as a coping mechanism to give her a sense of control over her intrusive thoughts, keeping her busy with something other than substance abuse. Scott commented on her experience chugging dozens of Voss wasters on set during her interview with Eric Eisenberg from CinemaBlend. “Gosh, who thought this would be one of the hard things?” While Finn gave Scott a way around drinking the waters using movie-magic, Scott denied his offer as she wanted to portray her character’s history with sobriety as accurately as she could. It’s clear that Scott’s commitment to Riley’s complex character was effective with the film surpassing its predecessor.
Through both Scott’s powerful portrayal of her character and Finn’s innovative directing, Smile 2 offers a fresh perspective on horror and solidifies the Smile franchise as a must-watch alongside other iconic scary movies such as Scream and The Shining.
