Director: Parker Finn
Writer: Parker Finn
Stars: Naomi Scott, Kyle Gallner, Drew Barrymore
Synopsis: About to embark on a world tour, global pop sensation Skye Riley begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events. Overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and the pressures of fame, Skye is forced to face her past.
Six days have passed since Rose Cotter self-immolated in front of her policeman ex-boyfriend Joel (Kyle Gallner) passing the parasitic monstrosity to him. Joel has made the decision to save himself by murdering someone else in front of a witness. A couple of syndicate connected drug dealers who killed an innocent mother and child are his targets. Desperate and sleep deprived, Joel’s planning skills aren’t finely honed. He manages to kill one of the dealers, but a shoot-out ensues, and his planned witness dies leaving an accidental witness. Although free of the parasite he still meets a grisly end as he flees other members of the syndicate. Crushed by a passing truck, Joel’s body and blood leave a ghastly bloody slick on the New Jersey road shaped like a pulpy red smile.
Parker Finn’s sequel to his 2022 debut horror feature Smile begins with a remorselessly bleak tone. The muted colors of a New Jersey drug den are replaced by a gothic-pop film clip showing the dark tressed superstar Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) singing her hit single ‘Grieved You.’ Skye, now with short blonde hair, is on the Drew Barrymore show discussing her comeback ‘Too Much for One Heart’ tour. Skye has been out of the public eye after being hospitalized due to a car crash that claimed the life of her actor boyfriend Paul Horton (Ray Nicholson). Both were intoxicated and Skye is promising her fans she is now sober, her days of cocaine and alcohol bingeing behind her. “I’m a different person.”
Media scrutiny hasn’t gone away, nor has her massive fandom. Skye’s ushered out of the studio by her ‘stage-mother’ Elizabeth (Rosemarie DeWitt) and Elizabeth/Skye’s personal assistant, Joshua (Miles Gutierrez-Riley). Elizabeth is checking Skye’s approval on social media and Joshua is doing what he can to keep both women happy. Skye puts in her earbuds to block them both out and the scene transitions to her rehearsing choreography with backup dancers for the tour. She’s the center of attention and a ragdoll. The routine is intensely physical, and Skye is still suffering from the multiple physical injuries (back surgery, internal surgery, and a knee surgery with a scar that mimics a grin) and the mental trauma from the accident. With her history of addiction, she isn’t allowed any painkillers. She texts Lewis Fregoli (Lukas Gage) a high school friend and drug dealer for some Vicodin.
Lewis was the accidental witness in New Jersey. When Skye arrives at his apartment, he is paranoid, confused, and places a sword at her throat. In Skye’s eyes he’s in the middle of a psychotic episode. He’s also snorting massive amounts of cocaine. He tries to tell her about the weird spooky shit that has been going on – the thing that follows him around smiling. He takes a weight and smashes his own face in after smiling at her. Skye is the new host.
Parker Finn’s choice of a much larger canvas for his ‘viral possession’ horror pays off. In placing the parasite inside someone who is constantly followed by fans, the media, potential stalkers, and who must remain secretive about her issues because of the millions of dollars being invested in her tour; Finn points at media virality itself. Skye’s very public substance abuse issues before the accident mean that she’s already considered someone who can relapse at any moment. Elizabeth ‘handles’ her daughter rather than listening to her.
Skye’s expensive New York apartment in a suitably faux-gothic building is a prison. Her bedroom is dark with Edvard Munch’s ‘The Vampire’ on the wall next to tasteful bondage photography and Maria van Oosterwijk’s dark Dutch floral still life hangs over her bed as oversized wallpaper. Skye’s reputation as a tortured pop poet comes from a ‘darkness’ inside her. She has unattended mental health issues, including trichotillomania as an anxiety response. Her brand is ‘damaged, but sexy’ – a trope used often in pop culture for women.
The only person Skye feels she can turn to is her childhood best friend, Gemma (Dylan Gelula) who she alienated during her addiction phase. Gemma’s immediate acceptance of her honest apology seems like a positive step, especially as Gemma listens to Skye’s story about Lewis and the strange things she’s been experiencing. Gemma offers some comfort including staying with her overnight. But Skye’s reality is warping, infected by the parasite and the sense that she is indeed the narcissistic diva and toxic human that she suspects she has been since the ‘fame monster’ took over her life.
Smile 2 is an incredibly slick production. Parker Finn and cinematographer Charlie Sarroff up the ante from the first film by using extended takes and dizzying angles, and Cristobal Tapia de Veer’s score is a sophisticated sonic nightmare. Unlike M. Night Shyamalan’s recent ‘concert’ film conceit in Trap, the production feels like it’s a full scale multi-million-dollar tour being staged. Naomi Scott, who is in every scene after the opening, is a genuinely talented singer/dancer and actor. Lady Raven (Saleka Night Shyamalan) wasn’t convincing as a pop star who would have legions of devoted fans, whereas Naomi Scott’s Skye Riley is the real deal as an edgy pop princess fans could, and would, become parasocial with.
A tattoo behind Skye’s ear is of an angel/devil whispering into it. Parker Finn set the rules in the first film that the monstrosity liked wearing the skin of people whose minds were already compromised. People fighting internal demons such as guilt, childhood trauma, and grief. Skye has been fighting for control of her life since she became famous. Whether Elizabeth is a caring mother or a woman looking for payment on the investment of her time and work acting as her daughter’s manager is up for interpretation. Unlike Smile where Sosie Bacon’s Rose had some form of support network that gave the audience a sense of how the parasite was playing with her mind, Smile 2 launches into the effect on Skye being almost immediate. Skye can’t admit to the authorities that she was at Lewis’ drug strewn apartment. She can’t tell Elizabeth. She can’t tell the harmless and hapless Joshua. Music gave her everything she thought she wanted, and it ruined her life.
Parker Finn uses an excellent combination of practical and digital effects. Although some of the scenes come from the body horror 101 playbook – there is a lot of viscera- he combines them well with the glitter and glamour of the ‘perfect package’ that famous people are supposed to project. Skye already feels monstrous because of her scars and the entire tour is about her emerging from a cocoon as a beautiful butterfly (there are some inevitable Cronenberg homages – the cocoon is a chamber reminiscent of The Fly).
One of the more disturbing scenes features Skye hallucinating an obsessed fan getting into her apartment and stripping naked with his stained underwear on the polished black tiles leading to her bathroom. Another is when her backup dancers attack her waiting for her to move before they get closer.
Smile 2 is a pitiless experience. Expect the requisite jump scares and being uncertain which parts of the movie are inside Skye’s infected mind and which are real. Skye already exists in a state of ‘unreality’ before she becomes a host: whether that be her depression, addiction issues, the pressures to deliver for the tour, or her inability to go anywhere without being recognized and asked to ‘perform’ humility, gratitude, and grace.
Smile 2 easily outpaces its predecessor. It isn’t only the increased budget and scope that makes the film more enthralling, it’s the idea that ‘Skye Riley’ is already a skin Skye is wearing and she’s hemmed in by parasitic attention. The old Skye, the new Skye, the infected Skye – none of them have control. Smile 2 is a cruel beast waiting to go viral.
