'Smile 2': Rockstar Blues
The much-anticipated sequel to 'Smile' will either make you shriek ... or turn your grin upside down
"Smile 2" takes the horror franchise in a different direction than the first.
The movie follows a recovering addict pop star named Skye Riley as she is infected by a demonic entity after visiting her dealer and witnessing his death first-hand. While Skye is being tormented by the demon, an unknown number starts texting her saying they've found the cure to her infestation ... only there's a problem: She has to die before the demon can kill her.
It's kill or be killed in this rampage of a horror flick.
We are two-for-two with good popstar-centered horror: the first hit being "Trap" from earlier this year. (You can check out my small recap of the movie in my summer blockbuster roundup.
"Smile 2' is a decent followup to the first. The plot for the movie was a really good idea, but the execution makes this movie a mess to review.
I'll start with the positives by saying Naomi Scott was excellent. I really enjoyed her as Jasmine in the "Aladdin" remake, and I'm glad she continues to deliver great performances. She captures the emotions of fear and paranoia so well in this movie. All of her acting was very believable and made my spine shiver.
The director, Parker Finn, really improved since the last movie. There are a lot of beautiful drone shots and some really creative zoom-ins and transitions that had my film brain buzzing. I will say he rotates the camera a nauseating amount of times, so be warned if you get dizzy easily.
The effects of the movie are amazing too. All the gore looks realistic and scary. The sets are creative and pop from a normal horror movie. The movie being centered around a pop music tour made the story really interesting, but once you know that you can predict the ending pretty clearly.
As much as this movie has going for it, it doesn't save itself from it's fault --, the biggest being the story itself and how events unfold.
This movie commits one of the worst crimes a film can, in that it uses the "it was all a dream cliché" not once, not twice, but by my count, nine times! (There's a "Ferris Buller" joke in there, somewhere.) This makes the movie extremely unreliable, and by the ending and big twist, I felt my time had been severely wasted.
The acting from everyone else besides Scott is abysmal. I loathed Dylan Gelula ("Hacks" "Helen's Dream") as Gemma, as her acting was super flat, especially from her introductory scene. She seemed so bored and disinterested, although her twist with her character was good, until the end of the movie when it was completely undone.
Ray Nicholson ("The outsiders" and also Jack Nicholson's son) is briefly in the film, but is totally wasted. Why put him in the marketing so prominently when he only shows up for two scenes as a macguffin for Scott's character? I felt cheated by that.
While this movie has a lot of great stuff, its writing and story sink it. Just like the first film, "Smile 2" just OK and nothing to write home about -- outside of Scott's acting.
It's a 7/10 movie from me; I would recommend streaming it when it comes out, just to formulate your own opinion. If you liked the first movie, I'm sure you'll love this one just as much.
Carter Salley is Central Michigan Life's resident film reviewer and co-host of the pop culture podcast "Raving Geeks." He is majoring in media arts.
