Smile (1 & 2)

SMILE (18)
D: Parker Finn
Paramount / Paramount Players / Temple Hill (Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey, Isaac Klausner & Robert Salerno)
US 🇺🇸 2022
115 mins

Horror

W: Parker Finn [based on his short film screenplay “Laura Hasn’t Slept”]
DP: Charlie Sarroff
Ed: Elliot Greenberg
Mus: Cristobal Tapia de Veer

Sosie Bacon (Rose Cotter), Kyle Gallner (Joel), Jessie T. Usher (Trevor), Robin Weigert (Dr. Madeline Northcott), Caitlin Stasey (Laura Weaver)

Following the traumatic suicide of one of her patients, a hospital psychiatrist becomes increasingly paranoid that a curse is following her, in which a demon manifests itself as people she knows, as well as complete strangers, tormenting her into the same fate.
The performance of the main actress really carries this film, and it does have some effectively chilling moments, but let’s not beat around the bush that this is just a retread of Ringu/The Ring with a creepy smile replacing a video cassette.
As far as modern horror movies go, it’s a swift 115 minute thrill ride, albeit with a rather silly premise, though the narrative doesn’t drag at all and there is a certain moment that really prompted a big surprise, but let’s not pretend that it’s nothing more than just a rehash of much better horror films from 20 years earlier.
6/10

SMILE 2 (18)

D: Parker Finn

Paramount / Temple Hill / Bad Feeling (Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey, Isaac Klausner, Parker Finn & Robert Salerno)

US 🇺🇸 2024

127 mins

Horror

W: Parker Finn

DP: Charlie Sarroff

Ed: Elliot Greenberg

Mus: Cristobal Tapia de Veer

Naomi Scott (Skye Riley), Rosemarie DeWitt (Elizabeth Riley), Lukas Gage (Lewis), Miles Gutierrez-Riley (Joshua), Peter Jacobson (Morris)

I thought the first Smile film from 2022 was decent enough without being particularly groundbreaking, but a sequel was quite inevitable from the wide open ending, as well as the huge financial returns of well over $200m from the modest production and marketing budget.

Like most horror sequels, this practically retreads the journey of the first movie, but bigger, faster, harder, more, starring Naomi Scott as a pop singer overcoming some personal demons when she becomes cursed by the “smile”.

Just like the first film, the lead performance carries the film, and Naomi Scott does all the heavy lifting here, especially since the film’s journey makes it practically impossible to follow what’s real and what’s imagined, to the point that the entire final act feels like one big plot hole.

There’s no explanation or analysis surrounding what the curse actually is, it just is what it is, and perhaps we may find out more in the third film which this sets up almost too perfectly for.

Whilst some consider this a sequel better than its predecessor, I really don’t consider this any better or worse than the first movie.

6/10