Parker Finn’s Smile 2 is a claustrophobic masterclass with Naomi Scott at centerstage

Between Trap and Smile 2, this has been the summer of the pop-princess stadium thriller—and we are here for it. Not just for the two films that push the bounds of their specific genres, but because we’re absolute suckers for movie soundtracks full of bangers from fake bands. The whole film squad here at The Pitch are owners of both That Thing You Do! and Josie and the Pussycats on vinyl. Extended playlists from Trap’s Lady Raven and Sm2le’s Skye Riley are already on heavy rotation around the office.

When it comes to the match-up of the actual films, however, there’s a clear platinum record and a perfectly serviceable golden record. Trap delivered on real tongue-in-cheek, near-stupid sequences that were saved over and over again by how much fun everyone on screen seemed to having, hamming it up. A joke adjacent film with a bit of that M. Night Shyamalan confidence that what he’s doing is 25% more clever than it is—we’ll always find time in our hearts for that. But for scares, smirks, smears, and pure cinema, Smile 2 put its mark on the fall box-office is a modern stone-cold classic.

Director/writer Parker Finn takes his previous horror entry Smile for a full upgrade, taking what seemed like a perfectly fine transmissible haunting endeavor and making one of the biggest glow-up sequels the genre has seen in years.

Smile established a malevolent spirit that transfers from one person to the next, torturing them for a week and then making sure their inevitable death/suicide had a witness—passing its energy on to this new host to repeat the process all over again. What if the videotape from The Ring was replaced by a person cutting themselves to ribbons, all while sporting an unsettling grin? We get it, you get it; nothing new but certainly well done in the right creative hands.

Smile 2 picks up days after the previous picture, with a police officer (Kyle Gallner, who is having the professional year of his life) trying to use his final moments as the Smile Host to deliver an unexpected degree of revenge with his inevitable death. Things go horribly wrong within a situation cleverly plotted to use evil powers for noble ends, and soon, the giggle ghost is back on the loose again.

Via a series of social webbing, we wind up intersecting with the life of pop super-star (Naomi Scott) who is plotting her huge return to stadium touring (and public life) after recovering from a near-fatal car accident. Her troubled history of mental instability and drug use still plagues her in the news, and as she struggles to put on a brave face and keep her name far away from anything unscrupulous, a former drug dealer from her past (Lukas Gage) turns up and his brutal demise delivers an unwelcome surprise to Skye Riley’s vacant eyes.

After a first act that retreads a little too closely to the original film’s main beats, Finn takes this film off-roading into spectacular new spaces for a universe clearly being staged for the long run. Whereas a studio horror sequel at this point feels like it would play things closer to the chest, Smile 2 uses a surprisingly long runtime to zig where others would zag, and to hammer away at otherwise undevelopable side scares.

Our flawed lead, her stunning stage show, and the rest of the wrappings of modern stardom would all make for a pretty enough present, but the technical filmmaking that delivers this is what cranks Smile 2 into the upper echelons of this year’s horror offerings. I struggle to remember a film shot so beautifully or so painfully close-up on its lead from start to finish. This is claustrophobically framed around lead actress Scott, and the film lives or dies on the performance she turns in. With a camera inches from her face for most of the runtime, she turns in a coup d’état that should be considered come aware season—if the Academy voters would consider a genre flick like this on its merits.

With a mousetrap built, threatening to jettison into jumpscare at literally any moment, Smile 2 serves up a tension headache drenched in rock’n’roll depression that we can’t wait to revisit. Catch this in theaters while you can, as home video will not deliver the experience this film deserves.