One of the best horror sequels in memory, SMILE 2 is a bone crunching, bloody elevation of everything you loved about the original.
With the best jump scare since "Insidious" it gave me rare full body chills twice through great direction, killer sound and terrifyingly fun visuals.
From the opening moments of Cristobal Tapia de Veer's chilling electronic score, the Dolby Cinema sound mix plunges you into 127 fast paced minutes that are as enjoyable as they are disorienting.
The opening scene finds a desperate Joel (a returning Kyle Gallner) six days after the events of the original film, crafting an ingenious way to pass on the smiling demon within him.
For those that missed the original, this demon takes hold of you and within seven days, forces you into madness and suicide in front of someone else, who the demon then leaps into. It's a clever concept, built in the spirit of the superb 2014 film "It Follows" and both versions of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", but Writer/Director Parker Finn proved in the original that he's a horror visionary.
Given a much larger budget from Paramount this time out, Finn ups his game in every way, delivering countless taut set pieces within his intriguing expansion of the plot. The New York City setting is also a great add.
Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) is a young pop singer about to launch her comeback tour after a major car accident a year earlier. Wrapped up in a drug habit and a toxic relationship with actor Paul (Ray Nicholson) the two were in a car that plunged off a cliff, killing Paul and leaving Skye with major injuries.
We meet Skye as she is in final rehearsals and the start of a media blitz to kickoff the national tour. Naomi Scott (Jasmine in Disney's live action Aladdin remake) is excellent as Skye. Unlike M. Night Shyamalan's recent "Trap", in which he tried to provide a family member a platform as a pop star (meh), Scott is the real deal.
Giving off Gaga vibes and true concert power as we watch her practice, Skye soon finds herself battling the demon. How that all happens is best discovered on your own, as are the many enjoyable twists and turns that Finn navigates here.
Several set pieces really set the film above the norm.
Skye's experiences in her massive Manhattan apartment (why is that place always so damn dark?) are loaded with shadows, scares and the terror of mental illness. Scott is believable in every moment and I was pulled into plight. How do you launch a multi-million concert tour when smiling maniacs and bloody specters seem to hide in every shadow?
When she does turn all the lights on, she's plunged into a nightmare in which all the choreography from the performance we saw earlier in the film come into play, her entire dance company moving toward her with mad ear-to-ear smiles. Finn's visual creativity is on full display in a sequence that drew huge gasps and laughter from the packed Dolby Cinema house around me. Finn knows how to stack tension, and dancers!
Ray Nicholson, Jack's son, brilliantly displays the "Here's Johnny!" Shining-smile that could only be recreated by direct DNA.
Rosemarie DeWitt (LaLa Land, Rescue Me) is Skye's stage Mom from hell, who doesn't quite seem to grasp what her daughter's going through.
Lukas Gage (Euphoria, The White Lotus) brings unexpected laughs as the worst drug dealer in NYC, a high school friend of Skye's who gets the ball rolling, or is that an 8-ball? Gage is a blast.
Kudos to Finn's sound mix teams and cinematographer Charlie Saroff, who ramps up all his tricks from the first film into widescreen madness here. His handheld photography in the opening scene, through a house, out a window and full speed into the street is jaw dropping without being self-important. He had me locked in during the first five minutes!
Big props to Naomi Scott and the songwriting team for the pop ear-worms "Grieved You", "New Brain" and "Blood on White Satin", which will likely climb the real pop charts, just as they have for Skye and Interscope Records within the film.
THIS is how you create an expansive sequel to a great original film. Finn creates a full tilt, madness packed final act that brilliantly sets up an even more terrifying Part 3. I for one can't wait to see it.
I couldn't wipe the smile off my face last night.
SMILE 2 gets an exhausted and appreciative A.
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