In the summer of 2022, the world was taken by storm by the smash hit horror movie, “Smile”. Between the thrilling plot, cliffhanger ending and spine-chilling real-life promotion, it was hard to miss the buzz around the movie. Now, two years later, the long-awaited sequel has arrived. The thrilling story, terrifying jump scares and deeper messages behind the plot make “Smile 2” a must-see horror movie.
The premise of the first movie surrounds a therapist whose client comes in reporting that she can not stop seeing people smiling at her. It is revealed that there is a kind of parasite, infecting people, sending them into a cycle of delusion and psychosis, ending in eventual suicide. Whoever witnessed the suicide becomes infected and the cycle continues. The first movie ends with the therapist killing herself in front of her boyfriend, continuing the cycle and presumably passing on the virus.
“Smile 2” opens with the boyfriend’s attempt to make the best of his infection, trying to kill himself in front of awful, criminal drug dealers, putting the suffering onto them instead of an innocent person. His plan does not go smoothly though as through a violent and suspenseful sequence of events, the virus is accidentally passed to Lewis Fregoli, a small-time drug dealer who was only attempting to get his fix from the house.
The audience is then introduced to Skye Riley, a pop star who just returned from a hiatus following a scandal involving drugs and a car accident in which her boyfriend, Paul Hudson—played by Ray Nicholson, the son of iconic “The Shining” actor, Jack Nicholson—dies tragically. In a desperate attempt to relieve pain from said car accident, she visits Fregoli and witnesses a traumatizing event that would give her the virus.
The gore throughout the movie adds a level of disturbance that brings it to the next level, and this scene is a perfect example. Fregoli stands over Riley, hitting himself square in the face with a barbell weight. Each time he hits himself, he slowly peels the weight off of him, each time taking a little more flesh and skin with it and revealing a more and more destroyed face.
Once Riley is infected, the movie becomes a constant, downward spiral. While she is supposed to be preparing for her comeback tour, her life has been turned upside down by not only the witnessing of her friend’s death in front of her, but the progression of her delusions and hallucinations from the parasite infecting her.
The incidents caused by the parasite are what brought the movie to the next level. Because Riley is famous, there is added pressure in every part of her life. From disrupting and unraveling during dance rehearsals to pushing an old lady off of a stage at a charity event, Riley’s high-risk life is completely destroyed by the virus. The jump scares in this movie are unmatched as well. Not only do terrifying, gorey and disturbing images flash across the scene often, but they truly are in completely unexpected moments. Just when one thinks there is a moment to relax as Riley is in the comfort of her own home, one of her deranged fans appears of course, smiling at her.
What makes this movie truly amazing though is the underlying tones and messages of the price of fame and the pressure that comes with it. Elements of Riley’s possible post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from her car accident and witnessing Fregoli’s suicide constantly come up. Riley finds herself dreaming that she is back in the car again, watching her boyfriend die and the same chilling sound of the peeling of the weight is constantly brought up through her journey showing how the traumatic events are haunting her. She crumbles under the pressure put on her by her mother and music label. While this virus definitely perpetuated these, it is interesting to think if Riley would have been living much better even if she was not infected. Riley was infected in the first place trying to get drugs when she was supposed to be sober, and the infection did not change the fact that she had demons she was already fighting.
“Smile 2,” just like the original, ends with a cliffhanger. It is revealed that all of the chaos Riley has endured has been imaginary. After spiraling out and doing things that would completely end her career, she finds herself on stage in front of thousands of fans with no idea how she got there. While she is expected to perform, she completely crumbles in front of the audience with more delusions and terrifying images appearing before her. Then, just like many before her, she kills herself, with a glaring smile on her face, therefore infecting the thousands of her fans, perfectly setting up a third movie in which the virus takes over thousands of people at once and spreads more rapidly than ever before.
