Welcome to the Cutting Room

Reviewing a sequel before the original? Unheard of. Who does such a thing, and why? I do, and because I wanted to. This was my first rewatch (my spouse took me to a theater showing on my birthday which was super cute). I really enjoyed the original “Smile,” although the (spoiler alert, but if you’re reading a review/blog entry/whatever you’d like to call this of the sequel I have to assume you’ve seen the first film. Proceed at your own risk) monster reveal left a lot to be desired, but at least now we all know what our moms saw when Marilyn Manson started to become A Thing.

So the movie starts about where the original ends; with scream king Kyle Gallner (swoon) as the ill-fated Joel trying to figure out a way to shake the Entity/curse/whatever. Sadly, the gravity of his situation hits him like a truck, and obviously we’re all sad because he’s gorgeous. ANYWAY. Now we meet Skye, (Naomi Scott) a Lady Gaga-esque performer with a Troubled Past. She was involved in a car accident which caused the death of her boyfriend (Ray Nicholson, son of Jack, starer of Kubricks) She’s in recovery, she’s hydrated, she’s rebuilding the bridges she’s burned, she’s thriving. Or is she?!

The tremendous weight of existing/injuries caused by intense choreography and the accident from her Troubled Past compel her to contact her old dealer for some pain killers. Said dealer has been Smiled (that’s how I’m going to refer to it) and proceeds to serve up a Smile to Skye on a plate (after threatening her with a katana, offering other drugs, doing lines from a giant pile of drugs, and other typical drug dealer in a movie activities).

Over the next few days Skye is Smiled at a few times by some creepy folks, including her seemingly only friend, Gemma (after we see how one-sided and kind of awful their friendship is). Her backup dancers also somehow sneak into her home and pursue her in a beautifully choreographed way (I really enjoy horror with a dance aspect, apparently).

The entity proceeds to fuck up Skye’s life in a whole bunch of ways, furthering the haziness of whether this is an actual spirit or phenomenon or if it’s just mental illness; I think arguments can be made for either, and I love that.

Watching almost every modern horror movie I can get my grubby little paws on, I’m very much over the “shot of a horizon rotates 180 degrees slowly to show things are about to get cRaZY” device. I do love the weird little discordant synth stings we get when we’re supposed to go “oh fuck” throughout the movie though, those are lovely.

Back to the movie. Just kidding, here’s another tangent. Would one really notice a famous person obviously who doesn’t want to be noticed? Do I just not pay attention to people’s faces? If I thought I saw someone randomly in public looking like they’re running errands or especially at a restaurant, especially if they look like shit (stars, they’re just like us!) I would probably just figure it was someone with a similar look. Just leave people alone. Jesus Christ that’s a nightmare. Maybe not an evil smile parasite nightmare but still.

Things get wilder when our heroine meets up with someone she just met and had one conversation with so he can kill her and bring her back to life. Very believable. Very realistic. He literally could have been a murderer. She’s letting some guy kill her so she doesn’t die. Now she’s stuck in a freezer in an abandoned Pizza Hut, as we all will be one day. We now get to the showdown between Smiley Skye and Actual Skye. Smiley Skye has teeth and eyes for DAYS and I LOVE IT. Whoever was in charge of updating the design of the monster fucking NAILED it. There’s some really fun body horror at the end of the movie and we quickly find out that the Smile Thing has some BIG PLANS, leaving the door wide open for sequels.

I really appreciated how the movie handled the theme of addiction and the self-destructive tendencies that tend to go hand in hand (although I’m generally not a fan of “drugs are bad” rhetoric – say perhaps to drugs, and do them safely if you do). I think it was a decent take on addiction not being something to celebrate, but also not be swept under the rug and expected to go away magically.

I’m cautiously optimistic to see where the “Smile” franchise goes, but am glad we’ve gotten at least two solid movies out of it. I know it’s not “elevated” horror but sometimes that’s not the vibe. I’d rate “Smile 2” a 4/5

As always, I recommend checking https://www.doesthedogdie.com/ for any triggers or things you don’t want to see before starting *any* horror movie.

all views expressed are my own, you don’t have to agree with them! I’m open to respectful discourse.

feel free to leave any movie recommendations or anything you’d like to read a review of!