The initial allure quickly fades, replaced by a growing sense of disorder and frustration. What began as something captivating descends into a messy affair, leaving you more irritated than anything else. The repetitive missteps become maddening, culminating in a sudden, unexpected end – a demise both disturbing and morbidly fascinating. Once it’s over, you’re left wishing the whole experience, from beginning to end, had never happened.
Before you dismiss this as overly dramatic or confusing, let me clarify: this vividly describes the experience of watching Smile 2.
As someone who appreciated the original Smile, I approached the sequel without prejudice, hoping to find another chilling horror experience. For a significant portion of its runtime, Smile 2 seemed promising. However, as the film progressed, it unraveled, exposing its flaws and leaving a critical viewer questioning its very purpose. My primary takeaway? Smile 2 feels like a blatant attempt to capitalize on the success of its predecessor, sacrificing narrative coherence and franchise integrity to force an unnecessary third installment.
The premise of the first Smile centered around a terrifying curse, passed from person to person through witnessing a gruesome suicide. The witness would endure seven days of escalating paranoia and disturbing visions, characterized by the unsettling smile, before succumbing to their own self-destruction in front of another unfortunate soul, perpetuating the cycle. Smile concluded with the protagonist taking her own life before her ex-boyfriend, a police officer, thus inheriting the curse. Smile 2 opens with this officer passing the curse to a drug addict who witnesses the officer’s brutal murder of two criminals, only to then be struck by a truck in a chaotic street scene.
This opening scene, unfortunately, foreshadows the film’s downfall: an over-reliance on gratuitous gore. The blood and violence are exaggerated, almost cartoonish, lacking the visceral impact of the original. The blood itself appears brighter, more artificial, signaling a shift towards sensationalism over genuine horror. This excessive gore feels designed for shock value, aiming for easily digestible, albeit disturbing, clips that viewers might reflexively shield their eyes from, yet secretly crave to see.
We are then introduced to Skye Riley, a pop star attempting a comeback after surviving a car accident that tragically claimed her partner’s life. The accident’s details reveal both were under the influence, adding a layer of complexity to Riley’s public persona.
One immediately noticeable detail about Riley is her constant hydration, but not with ordinary water. She exclusively drinks Voss water, conspicuously displayed in its iconic geometric glass bottle. This blatant product placement is a result of the Smile franchise partnering with Voss, a collaboration proudly advertised by the water brand online. This partnership underscores a perceived prioritization of profit over artistic integrity within the Smile 2 production.
Beyond the product placement, Smile 2 disappointingly rehashes plot devices from the first film, lacking originality and feeling derivative. It’s as if Smile 2 simply copied Smile‘s homework, changing a few words and hoping no one would notice. Unfortunately, the lack of effort is glaring.
Consider the therapist scene from the original Smile. The protagonist’s therapist visits her home, and during their conversation, she receives a call from her actual therapist, revealing the woman in front of her to be a demonic imposter.
Smile 2 mirrors this scene with Riley riding in a car alongside her friend Gemma, with whom she’s recently reconciled after a falling out. Predictably, while in the car with “Gemma,” Riley receives a call from the real Gemma, exposing the demonic deception. This blatant repetition feels lazy and uninspired.
The film’s proposed solution to the curse also lacks originality. In Smile 2, a man whose brother fell victim to the curse contacts Riley, offering a way to break it. The proposed method? Riley must experience cardiac arrest in a non-violent manner, in complete isolation, theoretically interrupting the curse’s transmission cycle. As an ER nurse, the man possesses the medical knowledge and resources to orchestrate this. This exact plot device – stopping and restarting the heart to break a curse – was notably featured in the 2021 Netflix series Fear Street, among other stories, highlighting the lack of creative innovation in Smile 2.
Despite these reservations about the solution’s originality, seeing it executed effectively could have offered some redemption. However, Smile 2 undermines even this potential by abruptly rewinding the timeline in its final act, revealing a significant portion of the preceding narrative to be a delusion, blurring the lines of reality and undermining viewer investment.
This narrative twist effectively erases some of the film’s few redeeming qualities. While Smile explored the concept of re-victimization and the cyclical nature of trauma, Smile 2 initially seemed to expand on this, suggesting that trauma’s impact extends beyond the individual, affecting those around them.
This theme is most poignantly illustrated in a scene where Riley argues with her mother. Riley hallucinates her mother shattering a mirror and using a shard to commit suicide. However, upon waking from this delusion, which turns out to be a delusion within a delusion, Riley discovers that she was the one who murdered her mother with the broken mirror shard.
This scene, in isolation, possessed a genuine emotional resonance, standing out amidst the film’s gratuitous gore and jump scares. The unexpected and emotionally charged murder of Riley’s mother evoked a truly unsettling feeling. Therefore, the subsequent reveal of the mother being alive at the film’s conclusion felt like a betrayal, discarding the film’s most impactful scene.
The climax of Smile 2 hinges on this pervasive sense of confusion, as much of what the audience has witnessed is revealed to be fabricated. During her comeback concert, in front of a massive audience, Riley dons the franchise’s signature smile. Then, in a shocking act, she uses a microphone to brutally kill herself on stage, forcing the audience, both in the film and watching it, to witness this horrific spectacle.
This disturbing finale serves as a transparent setup for a potential third movie, sacrificing narrative closure and thematic depth. However, even as a cliffhanger, it feels poorly conceived.
Logically, every person in that stadium should now be cursed, facing their own demise within a week and spreading the curse further. This scenario points towards a rapid, global spread of the curse, potentially leading to a worldwide apocalypse. It’s difficult to imagine the creative team behind Smile 2 successfully navigating such an ambitious and complex narrative shift from contained horror to global catastrophe. The alternative, ignoring the logical consequences and proceeding in a different direction, would be equally unsatisfying and demonstrate a disregard for narrative consistency.
Smile 2 ultimately feels like a commercially driven project that, despite initially touching upon themes of trauma, prioritized sensationalism and profit over crafting a genuinely compelling horror film. Despite this disappointing sequel, the original Smile retains its appeal. And while Smile 2 falters, the possibility of a third film in the Smile franchise remains. Whether driven by morbid curiosity or a sliver of hope that a potential threequel might recapture the spirit of the original, many, including myself, will likely find themselves watching it – perhaps hate-watching, perhaps cautiously optimistic.
So, where can you watch Smile 2? As of now, Smile 2 is currently playing in theaters. For those preferring to watch from home, you’ll need to wait for its digital release. Typically, movies become available for rent or purchase on digital platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, YouTube, and Apple TV about 2-3 months after their theatrical release. Streaming availability on platforms like Paramount+ (given that it’s a Paramount Pictures film) usually follows a few months after the digital release window. Keep an eye on these platforms for updates on when Smile 2 will be available to watch at home.
