Smile 2 Review

Hey everybody. My board game/rpg weekend was pretty good, thanks for asking. I definitely needed it, even if not every game I played was amazing. Anyway, now I'm back to watch some new (ish) movies! What's up first?

Smile then. I remember when the first movie came out, it was a horror idea that actually intrigued me. An idea of a creature stalking a person that only they can see is a cool (even if It Follows did it first) and the corruption of seemingly always positive symbols is fun when done correctly. I didn't watch first Smile. Apparently it's more psychological and less being chased by a specter of being overly excited to smash it's face in. But honestly, is it a bad thing that Smile 2 takes a completely different approach than the first one? Let's find out.

What's The Movie About?

Skye Riley is a pop star with a history of drug abuse who gets infected by a Lovecraftian parasite that feeds off of her negative emotions.

What I Like.

No. It isn't not a bad thing for Smile 2 to be different than Smile 1. I really like Smile 2! To start with, I like the plot. There's a fun mystery to explain the creature without fully giving the game away. Huh? Basically the story tells you what the Smile monster's MO is, but not what the monster is. You've definitely railed against other movies for this. Not true Buggnutz! The two examples that come to mind immediately is The Substance, which I thought they needed to explain a specific aspect of whether the main character and her clone shared a mind or not and completely understood how the Substance worked and Terrifier 3, which actually does the exact opposite and explains exactly what the monster is but not why it's doing anything. Speaking of Terrifier 3, this movie has MUCH BETTER gore than that piece of shit. It is pretty realistic, and shockingly brutal. It's not afraid to show people slicing themselves up or smashing their face in, and it's really scary! It's not just the good body horror, this movie triggered my agoraphobia unlike anything else this year. The trailer had that cool shot of all the smiling people chasing the protagonist in an amorphous blob, but there is also a scene of botching a public speaking and a scene of being forced to deal with incredibly creepy people and god I squirmed in my seat. I like that the movie isn't afraid to be funny either. That horde of smiling people scenes was freaky, especially when they all piled on Riley and drug her down in a pile of bodies, but I was still laughing during the build up when the horde moved like the Weeping Angels. Skye Riley is a pretty interesting character, she's not necessarily likable but you really understand her struggles and I felt pretty bad about her succumbing to the creature. And I like the energy and pacing. This is a horror movie for the attention deficit, and while that sounds like a knock against it, it means the pace keeps going and there's something interesting at all times. 

What I Didn't Like.

But there's a downside to that, namely that the movie has a ton of very obnoxious jump scares. The only one I thought was good was when the monster starts to reveal it's true form and it's eyes go all weird, everything else was a not scary entity doing the scar, came out of nowhere, and accompanied by an incredibly loud sound. Why do horror movies keep doing that? To unbalance you. Okay, but then follow it up with something scary to make me afraid, don't just imitate those screamer videos middle schoolers pass around to each other. I also kinda wish the last shot didn't show Skye, the shot facing the audience would have preserved a little mystery and been a lot scarier than seeing how she passes the parasite, so to speak.

Final Summation.

I feel very in key with Smile 2. Not that I relate to the main character Buggnutz, simmer down, but in the sense that the movie feels like it's full of ideas I would come up with. A monster that represents trauma, acting that unwaveringly unsettles, a mystery element. Ample amounts of suicide. Damn Buggnutz you gonna call me out like that?! But more to the point, I found Smile 2 really scary! I recommend checking it out!