When you have an original breakthrough in the horror genre, that generally means you can expect at least eight or so sequels that capitalize on the concept. The latest to spawn a hoped-for franchise is writer/director Finn Parker's follow-up to his successful 2022 debut film. Smile (which grossed $200 million worldwide) and which he promises will be “bigger, bolder, crazier, nastier and bloodier” and ten times more effective than the first film. That may be so, but smile 2, With a bloated running time of 2 hours and 7 minutes, it basically just follows the template of the original, which was about a metaphysical being that inhabits its victims in the form of a human with a haunting smile on its face, actually a curse passed on by him possessed individual to the next.

In Smile The main character was the psychiatrist Dr. Rose Cotter, playfully played by Sosi Bacon. She becomes traumatized by this creature in her effort to help her patients and spends most of the film trying to convince people that she is simply not crazy, but that she is having visions and a terrible situation is not just one psychological problem, but rather that Real deal. By adapting this idea into a second film, Finn hasn't reinvented the wheel, just put a new driver at the helm.

That would be global pop star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), someone already freaked out by the aftermath of a devastating car accident a year earlier that also killed her actor boyfriend Paul Hunter (Ray Nicholson), sending her into a downward spiral Self-immolation (she pulls out strands of her hair when the pressure is too strong) and drug addiction. Now, at the urging of her mother/manager Elizabeth (Rosemarie DeWitt), she's embarking on a new tour, but this time the fame will be very different. A fan event where she signs autographs and takes selfies with her loyal crowd is the first indication that the Smile Brigade is on her trail, especially a little girl who is unwell. Things get really scary when she visits Lewis (Lukas Gage), an old school classmate and current drug dealer who looks and acts completely crazy, but Skye will soon see the consequences of his possessed smile when he lifts his heavy barbell cruelly takes his face in his hand and shatters it right before her eyes.

The real connection between the two films is an opening sequence immediately after the Paramount Pictures logo appears. Joel (recurring actor Kyle Gallner), who wanted to help Rose get rid of her curse, ends up inheriting it himself instead Smile and is now desperately trying to pay it forward, so to speak. Unfortunately, after a shootout, he is brutally run over by a speeding car. This scene must have prompted Parker to describe the sequel as “bloodier.” Lewis now becomes the liaison for Skye's rise as the latest victim of this otherworldly presence. With a few violent pauses that require a lot of work from the makeup and prosthetics team responsible for devising heartbreaking methods of dying, this film, like the first, is above all a focused psychological look into Skye's increasingly intense personal ones Descent into Hell One vision after another drives her to the edge. Somehow this rapid decline doesn't leave much of an impression on her friends and family, who just wonder what the hell is wrong with her. Grab it, people!

Scott makes the most of the role as the entire film rests on her shoulders and she goes through an emotional crisis while also coming across as believable as a successful pop star, something she's clearly comfortable with. She really gets a chance to chew the scenery here, and the chewing is good. Gage is quite amusing in his big scene where he goes crazy. Dylan Gelula does well as Skyes' best friend and former colleague, who is brought back into the force as someone who might be able to stabilize the declining star. Peter Jacobson is pretty good as Morris, a guy who knows a lot about this smiling phenomenon and offers Skye a way to end it, but at a price. Nicholson (Jack's son) makes the most of his “smile,” reminiscent of his father's in the much scarier 1980 film The shining one. Even Drew Barrymore appears here, and Drew Barrymore when Skye reveals her personal problems on her TV talk show.

Finn actually manages some effective jump scares, and his sound engineers certainly know how to spice up the soundtrack with all of the genre's predictable tropes, but Smile 2 gets too caught up in the hardships of its drunken leading lady. In the end, we are truly ready to finish this ride. Certainly October is the time of horror horror 3 Handover to this, and Smile 2 then handover Poison a week later. But if you ask me, a current, imaginative genre entry like Demi Moore's substance lets the circus of the sequel run. If there is to be one Smile 3 Finn needs to find a way to revitalize the By-the-Numbers concept in the same way as Paramount's horror franchise A quiet place has done so well in its three editions so far.

Producers are Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey, Isaac Klausner, Finn and Robert Salerno.

Title: Smile 2

Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Release date: October 18, 2024

Director/screenplay: Parker Finn

Pour: Naomi Scott, Rosemary DeWitt, Lukas Gage, Miles Guitierrez-Riley, Peter Jacobson, Ray Nicholson, Dylan Gelula, Raul Castillo, Kyle Gallner, Drew Barrymore

Evaluation: R

Duration: 2 hours and 7 minutes