I got a chance to see an early screening of Smile 2 thanks to the Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers.
I had not seen the first movie prior to watching this one. It was on my list to watch this past weekend before going to this screening and I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t make time for it. But c’est la vie. One of my fellow GLAHWers told me that she didn’t like the first one. I took that for what it was and at least read the first movie’s plot synopsis, just in case it was necessary. Turns out it was, and it wasn’t. The movie opens with Joel, from the first movie, sitting alone in a car, with words on the screen that say, “Six days later.” Not having seen the first movie, I didn’t recognize him, but inferred who it was when he sees a figure (presumably Rose) on fire. However, the rest of the movie has no real connection to Smile and you can watch it as a standalone.
Again, not having seen the first movie, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this one. But it became clear after the opening scene that there was going to be a lot of violence and body horror. And there is a lot of it. However, it’s the kind of over-the-top body horror that, while gross, isn’t so affecting that I couldn’t watch it. Well, mostly. I have a phobia of needles, so the scene in which Skye is in a hospital and is trying to pull an IV out of her which had been secured by tape was hard for me to watch. There are also a lot of jump scares, sudden noises, and flashes which leave Naomi Scott (our MC) staring wide-eyed at the camera before reacting.
There is a psychological aspect to the horror, which was in good balance with the physical horror. Skye is a deeply broken character who, in a lot of ways, is easy prey for a demon that psychologically tortures its victims before driving them to suicide. I was definitely rooting for her to be able to overcome her inner demons and, by doing so, overcome the smile demon. I won’t say if she did or not. You have to watch the movie. There are a lot of scenes that are quietly disturbing, such as the… I guess I’ll call it the “flash mob” scene in Skye’s apartment. Naomi Scott is able to play her role well, which is great since we spend almost the entire movie with her, which kind of makes the movie feel like more of a character study than a narrative.
I’d like to take a moment to talk about the movie’s sound design. I am a former sound designer/engineer and I have a soft spot for the design and execution in any media I’m consuming that includes it. The sound design for Smile 2 was incredibly evocative. Without giving too much away, we hear the sound of skin and flesh peeling back from a jaw early in the movie; later, Skye is creeping through her dark apartment, on edge, and she hears the same sound from off screen. It was an incredibly disturbing moment that successfully evoked the visual from just the sound. Probably not going to see a horror movie win an Academy Award for Sound Design, but there’s a first time for everything.
Overall, I thought that the movie was a lot to take in and while I could delve into Skye as an unreliable narrator and try to parse out where reality diverged from her psychological breakdown on a second or third viewing, I’m probably not going to go out of my way to watch the movie again. I am, however, interested in going back and watching the first movie to put together with this one. Also interested to see, building off of the character of Morris, if we get a third movie.
The Chimerical Dark 