Movies: Smile 2

I never saw the first Smile, but I had heard good things, so I went to catch the sequel in the theater:

Smile 2 follows new protagonist Skye Riley (portrayed with frazzled intensity by Naomi Scott), a troubled pop superstar embarking on a comeback world tour. As you might imagine, Skye comes across a malevolent entity, and starts seeing horrible smiling people everywhere she goes. Can Skye find a way to escape the entity's clutches before she goes insane?

Director Parker Finn has been milking the Smile premise since his 2020 short film Laura Hasn't Slept, and Smile 2 is a bigger, louder version of the first movie, with similar story beats and jump scares.  Sometimes the visuals are exceptional (there are memorable scenes of Skye being menaced by smiling fans and creepy backup dancers).

However, unlike other movie monsters, there doesn't seem to be any real way to resist the Smile entity, and Skye seems an easy target, already damaged by the pressures of fame.  That all brings an inevitability to the proceedings that dampens the fun...after all, music stars commit suicide or die of drug overdoses all the time, even without a demon hunting them.

Rating: 6/10