It’s all about how you “lead”…

Believe it or not, Smile 2 actually breaks the rule of diminishing returns on a horror sequel by pushing this story through the fun house mirror with aplomb alongside a leading performance that thrusts its star into leading ‘Scream Queen’ status.

About to embark on a new world tour, global pop sensation Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events. Overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and the pressures of fame, Skye is forced to face her dark past to regain control of her life before it spirals out of control.

While it isn’t exactly the best thematically when it comes to portraying mental health issues on screen, Writer/Director Parker Finn ups the visual and immersive natural of the scares and thrills in Smile 2 to the point where it’s almost satirical but it all works thanks to his lead that embraces the delirium full throttle.

At 127 min, we can’t deny that there is a self-indulgent bloat to it all but it kind of works to its favour as Parker Finn is basically giving us his take on something like All That Jazz being shoved through the fun house mirror.  If you’ve seen All That Jazz, imagine that the entire movie is the closing number with Ben Vereen; sure that’s undeniably extreme but it works as Finn makes the gothic architecture of New York City work in his favour.

Finn leans into the classic jump scare by executing them with such meticulous precision that you can’t help but be in awe as we genuinely laugh at moments that completely caught us off guard.  With a couple of exceptions the movie plays on the paranoia that is slowly seeping into the situation and less about any moments of gratuitous gore.  He took a fairly serious situation and premise and made it gonzo as all hell, taking us on a ride that is so ridiculously terrifying that it’s ok to laugh AND be frightened simultaneously.

Thankfully this all comes home thanks to Naomi Scott who kills it as the flawed pop star who is gradually losing her mind.  If you had forgotten that Naomi played Jasmine in the live action Aladdin, was a Charlie’s Angel or played the “Pink” Power Ranger, no one would blame you because honestly we certainly did.   Carrying a horror movie is one thing, but carrying a 127 min one is entirely different as she holds our interest throughout it all.  While Rosemary DeWitt plays her Mom/Manager and Jack Nicholson’s son Ray and veteran character actor Peter Jacobson get a couple of moments to shine it’s all about Naomi and it’s a glorious thing to watch, even with Kyle Gallner coming in as Joel from the original to provide some connective tissue to the first film.

Ultimately Smile 2 improves on the original because it isn’t about just giving us more of the same, it’s about seeing what kind of extremes the idea can be taken too…which one can only imagine we’re going to see in the inevitable Smile 3, and to put it simply we can’t wait.