'Smile 2' Is a Terrifyingly Awesome Sequel

Smile 2  absolutely kicks ass. It was delivered in a timely manner, it continued the original story in a practical way, and it's absolutely frightening.

Seems like it was only yesterday when I was sitting here, on this very couch, in front of this very laptop, writing only the second film review I'd ever written on this very blog. I'd just gotten home from seeing a new indie psychological horror film called Smile, which I admittedly loved, despite it receiving relatively mixed reviews from critics and audiences alike. Nonetheless, I raved about the film here on EndingPolitics.com, and I believe I even alluded to the possibility that it may have been the scariest film ever made.

Well, I write this evening, two years later, about Smile's sequel, and I must say, I'm even more impressed than I thought I'd be. This film was delivered to the big screen in a timely manner, in regards to the timeframe it was released after the original, and that it was released just in time for Halloween... and damn, I cannot think of a better movie to celebrate the season.

Smile 2  combines The Shining-inspired cinematography, stellar performances from its actors, a kick-ass original soundtrack, and a well-written scary story to deliver an absolutely terrifying horror masterpiece.

The story follows Skye Riley, a pop music icon with a chaotic personal life behind-the-scenes. Riley is about to kick off a new tour, after a year of recovering from drug and alcohol abuse, as well as physical and emotional trauma. A year earlier, she'd gotten in an SUV with her boyfriend, actor Paul Hudson, both high as kites on cocaine, and run the car off a snowy road during a tense verbal altercation. Her boyfriend was killed in the accident, and Riley barely makes it out alive. Despite her best efforts to stay sober since then, Riley continues to suffer from intense back pain from the accident, but her doctors refuse to prescribe her anything stronger than 800mg ibuprofen, due to her history of drug abuse, and Riley has to turn to the black market for Vicodin in attempt to control her physical pain (which seems become markedly worse during her choreographed dance routines she has to perform on-stage). Her high school friend, Lewis, regularly supplies her with her "pain medicine," until the night she arrives at his apartment to cop, and Lewis is terrified of... something (that something being the same demon that drove people to insanity and then inevitable suicide in the first film). Lewis is possessed, and horrifically kills himself right in front of her by smashing his face in with one of his own thirty-five-pound barbell weights. The rest of the film is an unpredictable set of twists and turns, in a similar fashion we saw in the first film, but with a fresh set of characters and chilling events, all tailor-made for Skye Riley's own, personal nightmare. Riley drifts further and further into insanity as the film progresses, and her inner circle of friends and family's interactions with her become less and less real as time goes on, until it's nearly impossible to tell what she's seeing, who she's talking to, and what they're telling her is real and what isn't. And the titular "smiles" are somehow even creepier and more unsettling this time around than they were in the original Smile.

Naomi Scott is a brilliant actress, and delivers a terrifyingly-convincing performance as Skye Riley, for which will almost certainly be remembered as potentially the best performance of her career.

The film's soundtrack is excellent, and showcases a combination of modern dance-pop with terrifying 80s-inspired synth-scapes that invoke feelings of tension and fear at the most appropriate moments, and really adds to the psychologically-horrifying atmosphere of the film.

The cinematography in this film is the whipped cream and cherry on top to an artistically-terrifying psychological horror film. Writer and director Parker Finn is clearly heavily influenced by Stanley Kubrick and The Shining and his camera and lighting work in the film reflect that. Everything from the upside down camera angles, to shot-spinning, and even to graphics in the opening credits, instill an unsettling, and almost nauseating feeling of disorientation in the audience. It's Parker Finn's brilliant filmmaking skills that make this film truly horrifying (and artistic).

Today was Smile 2's opening day, so we have little to no information in regards to current box office figures, but I sat in a pretty packed theater this afternoon, filled with older teens, twenty-somethings, and even some middle-aged and older folks, so it stands to reason that this film is probably destined for huge box office success. It will be well-deserved. This movie makes for great date night out and Halloween-season celebration. Just be sure hire a babysitter for the kids. Don't bring them.



Smile 2 is a horror masterpiece, and we at EndingPolitics.com gives it two thumbs up, and dare we say, this film will be remembered as a psychological horror classic.