Smile 2

It really, really didn't need a sequel - Parker Finn's remarkable low-budget horror film from 2022 that cost a modest $17 million to produce and market, grossed $217 million at the cinema. Smile stood on its own, it ended satisfactorily and felt to me not like the start of a series, but rather like a one-off that worked surprisingly well. However, Paramount didn't think so and were quick to order a more lavish sequel.

While the first film revolved around psychologist Rose and the way she came face-to-face with a particularly murderous demon (who made his victims smile so evilly before taking their own lives), the second is about pop star Skye and her celebrity struggle against fame, crazy fans, unrealistic tour schedules, a manager mother greedier than Scrooge McDuck and everything in between. Skye has suffered a car accident, had surgery and become addicted to painkillers in the process. In her quest for more pills, she visits her dealer who unfortunately has the smiling demon of death on her neck and before poor Skye knows it, the misery has jumped over to her.

What follows is both a blandly obtuse jab at the downsides of celebrity (with no subtlety or grit) and a predictable story of alienation via mental illness. Skye sees the smiling demon everywhere while those around her naturally don't, and her encounters with fans, record company executives and other celebrities gradually become irrational and unhinged.

There's a stripped-down sense of effective minimalism in this film that formed the visual core of its predecessor, which I still think works really well. It's cold. Cold colours. It's grey, or white. Or black. The imagery is nice and there are some jumpscares here that are successful. I also think that Aladdin actress Naomi Scott does a credible and stylish portrayal of Lady Gaga look-alike Skye Riley, although she never plays scared and frightened quite as well as Kevin Bacon's talented daughter Sosie Bacon in the first film.

Smile 2 is never bad but it's also never very good. Mostly it feels like it's just repeating itself, and like there are no more sensible ideas beyond those already used in the first film. Unlike in Smile (2022), I'm never either frightened or excited by the scares, but see them coming quite far in advance, which is why I'm giving it a five, and that five is the weakest.