Parker Finn’s directorial debut “Smile” became one of the biggest breakout hits of the 2022 horror movie season, despite initially being planned to be released directly on Paramount+. The film is centered on the therapist Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon), who discovers that a supernatural entity is causing people to experience traumatic breakdowns and burst out into violence. The signature sign of being possessed is that the victim can’t stop smiling; the curse is only passed on to the next inhabitant after they witness someone dying.
Although Rose dies at the end of the first “Smile” film, she ends up passing the curse to her ex-boyfriend Joel (Kyle Gallner), a police officer who now tries to give it to another victim by forcing someone to bear witness to a murder. At the beginning of “Smile 2,” Joel succeeds in killing a drug dealer in front of Lewis Fregoli (Lukas Gage) but is accidentally killed by a truck when he tries to escape. Lewis then begins to understand the ramifications of living with this affliction and begins a search to find a new person to pass it on to.
Smile 2 (2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
Will Skye Riley Confront Her Past to Break Free from the Curse of the “Smile Entity”?
“Smile 2” takes place shortly after the events of the first film, and centers on the highly successful, Grammy Award-winning popstar, Skye Riley (Naomi Scott). Skye has been the subject of some very unwanted media attention. She has been recovering from serious issues with substance abuse, and recently lost her boyfriend, Paul Hudson (Ray Nicholson) in a devastating car accident. Skye finds it very difficult to discuss her issues publicly, as she is under near-constant surveillance by her mother, Elizabeth (Rosemarie DeWitt), and her assistant, Joshua (Miles Gutierrez-Riley).
Skye has been suffering severe back pains as a result of the intensive training done for her new musical video and decides to seek out Lewis to obtain Vicodin in order to soothe her wounds. However, she is shocked when she discovers that Lewis has become unhinged, and smashes his own face with a weighted exercise plate. Skye is too shocked to tell the police and does not want to let anyone know that she has been purchasing drugs illegally. She decides to keep the incident a secret, which means that she has now inherited the “Smile Entity” upon Lewis’ death.
Despite her efforts to hide the darkness brewing inside her, Skye begins to experience haunting, violent dreams tied to her past trauma, struggling to discern what is real and what exists purely in her imagination. Skye tries to reach out to her former best friend Gemma (Dylan Gelula), who she had lashed out at while at the height of her drug addiction. However, Skye also receives a mysterious text message from a stranger who tells her that he witnessed the incident with Lewis, and may be able to find a way to lift the curse.
How Will Skye Confront the “Smile Entity” and Face the Haunting Truth of Her Past?
Skye’s public persona continues to go off the rails when a charity speech that she is hosting is interrupted by the surprising appearance of the “Smile Entity,” which forces her to ignore the teleprompter and begin speaking directly about her trauma to a stunned audience. Skye’s paranoia reaches its apex when she begins seeing visions of Paul, which causes her to exit the stage quickly, accidentally injuring one of the elder patrons who were in attendance. She decides to meet up with the mysterious texter, who reveals himself to be Morris (Peter Jacobson), an ER nurse.
Morris has also been trying to find a way to defeat the “Smile Entity,” as it was responsible for the death of his brother. Having conducted his own research on the way the curse is passed, Morris theorizes that the entity is a parasite, and cannot live if the host dies and there is no one to pass it on to. Since Skye does not intend to sacrifice her own life, Morris suggests that she could try to stop her heart and then resuscitate herself. Their attempts at making a plan are interrupted when a group of fans recognize Skye, forcing her to exit the club quickly. She is then attacked by the entity, which leads to a flashback that explains more details about her past.
The flashback reveals that Skye was driving erratically, inadvertently leading to his death. She then awakens with Elizabeth standing close to her, begging her to move past her issues and get on with the tour. However, the curse takes hold once again, and Elizabeth ends up taking her own life by smashing a shard of glass through her body. Skye soon realizes that she was the one who stabbed her mother while under the control of the “Smile Entity,” and flees from the wellness retreat with Gemma so that they can go through with the plan to stop her heart.
Smile 2 (2024) Movie Ending Explained:
Will Skye’s Haunting Finale in “Smile 2” Lead to New Horrors in a Potential “Smile 3”?
Skye’s trip to meet Morris is thrown off course when she realizes that the real Gemma is somewhere else and that the entity has appeared alongside her pretending to be her best friend. It is after this that Skye reunites with Morris in an abandoned Pizza Hut, where she plans to step inside a walk-in freezer in order to protect her brain. However, the entity reappears once more, forcing Skye to try and stop her heart by injecting herself with a syringe. This reveals to her an even more awful truth; she has been hallucinating for several days and is now in the middle of an opening night performance at Madison Square Garden as part of her new tour.
Elizabeth, Joshua, and her record company head Darius (Raúl Castillo) are all still alive in the audience, but the entity attacks Skye and reveals its true form to be a hulking, nearly formless monster. Although no one but Skye can see it, the entity attacks her and forces itself down her throat; the audience simply assumes that Skye has collapsed and fallen down on stage. Although they briefly seem to exert a sigh of relief when she stands up, Skye then uses the microphone to stab herself through the eye as everyone in attendance watches. This would imply that the curse will be passed on to anyone who witnessed her death, leaving the door open for a “Smile 3” to pick up after the end of “Smile 2.”
Smile 2 (2024) Movie Review:
Both “Smile” films walk a fine line between being overtly maximalist slasher fare and more prestigious “elevated horror” films. While there are moments of grotesque death sequences that are reminiscent of some of the boldest entries in the “Friday the 13th” or “A Nightmare on Elm Street” franchises, the film also touches on more serious issues about mental health and trauma, similar to “Hereditary” or “Rosemary’s Baby.” Unfortunately, “Smile 2” has a hard time keeping these two inspirations distinct, as the film’s approach often feels quite messy. The mythology behind the “Smile Entity” is inherently pretty silly, but the film seems to be begging the audience to take it seriously.
“Smile 2” has a hard time building suspense in any of its main scary moments because of the nature of how the entity causes its victims to hallucinate. While the reveal that Skye was just dreaming may have worked if it was only used once, it becomes a crutch that the film leans on too heavily when it tries to get out of a logical loophole. The final reveal at the concert is particularly underwhelming, as it nearly insults the viewer for investing in any of the drama that had taken place up until that point. The steps that Skye took forward to remain active about her own mental health feel less impactful as a result.
If there’s one excellent aspect of the film, it’s the performance by Scott. While Bacon was fairly strong in the first installment, Scott is able to unlock a whole new side of the franchise by showing how the pressure to constantly look happy and upbeat makes it hard for victims to deal with their trauma. This is even more prevalent considering that she is a celebrity, and thus is under constant moderation by the media and her crew to perform. It also helps that Scott is playing a flawed character, as Skye has to work to win back the respect of her friends by standing up to the entity.
While Smile 2 features some genuinely shocking moments, it seems that a more sustained level of suspense would have been preferable to the sporadic bursts of ultraviolence. Despite the very different setting, there isn’t actually that much that “Smile 2” does that is different from its predecessor, as they follow a nearly identical story structure. That being said, the hint that an entire audience could be suffering from collective trauma does suggest that a “Smile 3” could be far more interesting. Finn clearly knows and understands what he is doing as a filmmaker, but a more nuanced story may benefit a potential third installment in this burgeoning franchise.
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