Smile 2 is Actually Good

Still to date, one of the biggest surprises I've ever had going to a horror film was actually enjoying the first Smile movie. I went into that thinking that it might just be fun bad, but that it stood no chance of being anything even close to decent. Because it had like a TikTok influence and this and that. I thought the odds were stacked against it, but I walked out of that theater smiling. Like I thought it was just so good. Like it was such a pleasant surprise. It takes a super generic concept that I had already seen a movie like in the past. Truth or Dare did something very similar with like the smiling right before death thing. And I thought this would just be another one of those throwaway slop horror films that I'd forget about 15 seconds after leaving the theater. But nah, Smile stuck with me. It's not like those other things where they just throw together something shitty, a few jump scares and call it a wrap. You know, something like The Bag Man or any of those other awful premises. Because everything gets a horror film these days. Literally the dumbest ideas ever get horror movies because they're cheap to make and usually turn a profit. So you have some shit come out like The Backwards Walkman. If you see his cheeks coming at you, it's already too late. If his butt's facing you, you're already dead. But all this to say, I liked Smile. So I had a lot of expectations here on Smile 2. Probably unfairly so. Yet it exceeded them. Smile 2 is actually better than the first one. And people in stream chat that had seen it yesterday were telling me that much. They were saying that Smile 2 is actually better than the first one. And I agree. There are things I liked more in the first one, but overall I think Smile 2 is just a stronger film in general. So let me just go ahead and start glazing it like a donut real quick. But I do want to talk about some complaints that do get a little spoilery. But I'll get to those towards the end. Before even really getting into the meat of this, I do want to make a mention up top here. Because I have to know that I'm not crazy. Like maybe I'm possessed by a fucking sound demon or something. But this is the loudest movie I've ever heard in my life. I saw Smile 2 in a Dolby screening, which I've done for tons of movies that have come out. And I've never had something be this loud. Like I'm talking anytime something happens on screen, it's like five sticks of dynamite get shoved into my ears. Like it's some kind of Tom and Jerry gag. Like even something like the main character opening a can of mints sounded like five dump trucks being thrown off of a cliff into a pile of broken glass and nitroglycerin. Everything was so loud. Now I think the sound design and the audio was great in the film. I think they did a really good job with it. Like I do want to make it clear, like I think they crushed it in the sound department. But like maybe the levels were a little too high in the theater I was in or something where it became like actually painful. Like there's a scene in the very beginning where a guy throws a sword and it was already really loud but he throws that sword and holy shit. It was like I was back at a club standing in front of the speaker. Like that sword hits the ground and it was like someone clapped their hands against my ears. Like what Jackie Chan would do in a kung fu movie to stun someone. It was crazy how loud some moments were here. Now first and foremost, if you haven't seen the first Smile movie, you should know that Smile is built upon tension and jump scares. It has an unapologetic use of jump scares. It's not ashamed and it actually gets very creative with the jump scares. Most of the time when someone tries that shit with like a BOOM and like a really loud noise, like I'll just sigh and roll my eyes. It's really not exciting and it's kind of lame. And for a long time people have criticized horror movies reliance on jump scares for its scare factor and rightfully so because it is lazy. Smile 2 though and the first Smile by extension, they take jump scares and they use them so well. So they build tension, effectively build tension. And instead of like releasing the tension with a jump scare, it just keeps building the tension and you're like hoping for a jump scare and then when it comes somehow you're still not expecting it and it's it hits. It actually hits. Their jump scares here are so creative. They don't reinvent the condom with them or anything. The jump scares still have like the loud noise, scary face kind of thing going on. But the way that it's utilized is so good. It's like a pick and roll in basketball. Everyone knows it. Everyone knows pick and rolls are coming. But if you know how to use them well, holy shit are they effective. And I think Smile 2 uses jump scares super well because it does the hard stuff of building and actually getting you invested and like kind of on the edge of your seat this whole time. So because of that, they're able to put a jump scare in there and have it not be cringe. And another thing that helps is characters that you actually care about. So when you're watching Smile 2, I think Naomi Scott does an incredible performance here. Like she has mastered the teardrop coming from her eyes with like a thousand yard stare in shock. And she just sells the peril and like the hopelessness and the fear well. Really everybody in the movie does. Like I was really surprised by how good everyone's performance was in the movie. So I did want to make a special note of that. But like the characters do have you invested. And it's not like they give you a ton of information about them. Like they're not fully fleshed out characters. But what's there is enough. Now the movie follows pretty much an identical storyline to the first one. Almost beat for beat. Which is one of my complaints. I wish they had done more with maybe giving us a little bit more on, you know, the actual monster itself. Like I understand keeping it a mystery. That is the most effective thing you can do with it. But it really does follow almost the exact same roadmap that the first one laid out. It just follows it better. Like it's a more exciting ride. But I do wish they had explored other ideas a bit more. So our main character is a troubled pop star who's gone through something traumatic in the past. She's had issues with substance abuse. And she unfortunately watches one of her friends kill himself with the smile demon possessing him which passes it on to her. This is all in the trailer. This isn't a spoiler or anything. So now it's her battling against this evil. And a lot of the things that are in place narratively were the same things that were in place in the first film. Which is fine because it works and it's good. But like I said I wish they explored a couple of other ideas. And maybe did a little bit more with the universe and world building. But to counter my own complaint here like I'm in fucking debate club. They did do something very different for the intro of this movie. They did a single take one continuous shot action sequence. Like I'm talking guns blazing knives out blood gore like all of that action sequence that felt like I had wandered into the wrong film for a moment. It was good. Like they did a great job with that whole sequence. And it's very interesting how it ties into the rest of the movie. I'm not going to spoil anything but I thought that was exceptional. And that had me hooked immediately. I just wish they had more moments like that where like it didn't stay the exact same course as the first film. But it's not like the biggest complaint because it still worked very well. I still really really liked this movie. Since I mentioned that intro sequence I do want to just point out the cinematography in this movie I thought stood out. Like I thought there were some really creative shots. Like there were some really good shots and some good spins on some like classic shots that you've seen a million times in other horror movies that you just wipe your ass with in those films. Well here they take those same kind of shots and they put like a nice little creative spin on it that works super well that helps elevate the whole thing. Especially considering that a large part of Smile is playing with people's perception of what's real and what's fake. Since the smile demon gets inside of the victim's brain and starts pulling levers and shit like that worm out of Courage the Cowardly Dog it is changing what is real and what's fake as well as just the flow of time. Like how long has it been? Which is really fun as someone watching the film trying to figure out what's real and what's fake. Oh that must have been real because of this. If it was fake then how the fuck did she end up over there? You know this that couldn't make any sense if it was fake. No how could that possibly be fake when I have a boner? This doesn't add up. You know like it's a fun little game that the audience gets to play of figuring out well what's in her head and what's reality. And the film plays with that super well. And I think the way that it's shot helps with that too. And it's something I really appreciate. I really like the narrative to this even though it is just kind of retreading the first one. I just still think it hits. And I like the pop star spin on it because then she's constantly surrounded by people in public. It allows for some really interesting new kind of horror scares that they try. Because in most horror films you have the standard like haunted house shit or just like really dark shit. Smile 2 pretty much all the scary stuff happens in broad daylight. Lights on. Almost nothing happens in the dark. And that's pretty fun. That's pretty cool. I also was a little worried that the pop star angle would be overplayed a bit in this film where it focused too much on like pop music and like musical performances and stuff. And I thought it would take away from the rest. The shit that people actually care about which is the horror. It doesn't. The pop music does clearly play a role here. But it doesn't like overstay its welcome or anything. And when the songs come on like it's fun. And usually something happens during it. So it's not like it's a totally separate thing. Kind of like in Trap one of the big critiques I had of it is that it felt more like a concert first and foremost before like a movie. I was a little concerned that maybe this might have something similar. No. The pop music is there. It's a small portion. And it's not like overused or anything. It's not like the bread and butter of the movie by any means. So if anyone was worried about that let me just go ahead and put your mind at ease there. I think Smile 2 is just really really solid. I thought it was fucking great. But I do want to get into a few complaints now. I already mentioned the one where I feel like it was just kind of the same thing again but better. That is still one that I have. But my biggest complaint is actually the ending. But I just feel like the movie's ending was the most predictable ending that you would have imagined when you saw that the character was a pop star. And it's something tons of horror movies have done in the past. That well now the genie's really out of the lamp and everyone's got it. The bad thing's everywhere now. And I just don't like that. I think that is so overdone. I recognize that when it comes to Smile there's nothing necessarily new about it. It just executes everything better than what else came before it. However in this ending I don't think it did it better. It did it the same as tons of other horror movies that end with uh Pandora's box is open now everyone's affected. It just did that and not really in a new way. So I was kind of underwhelmed there. I get it conceptually like it's a strong conclusion. I just couldn't help but feel less than satisfied. Especially when you consider that the ending of the film also nullifies a lot of the film's best moments. This is a big spoiler. I'm going to try and tiptoe around it as to not ruin this. But the way the movie ends it kind of rewrites and undoes a lot of the best scenes from the film like retroactively. And that kind of sucks like it kind of takes the wind out of its own sail which I just really didn't like. You know how everyone hates that trope that cliche of it was all a dream that kind of thing. Well I felt the same way with the ending of this movie. I just really felt like man that really kind of takes a lot of the impact away what you've just done here. So hopefully I didn't like say too much there that spoiled it for anyone. But I just I just felt really let down a bit by the direction the ending went. Like I'm talking the very end like the last five or six minutes like not long. I think everything up until like the last five six whatever minutes was so strong and narratively I even think the last five and six minutes is a strong conclusion like from a plot perspective. But from a viewing perspective it just really feels like man that really does take away a lot of the fucking oomph with what we had been experiencing up until this point. So that's by far my biggest complaint. But I don't think it like makes this movie that much worse in my eyes or anything. I still think this is a great film. I still think it is better than the first one. So overall I think Smile 2 is 100% worth seeing. I think it is so good. So I definitely recommend it. I liked it a lot. And yeah that's about it.