Del reviews ‘Smile 2’

Pop singer Skye Riley finds herself being stalked by the Smile Entity in the followup to the viral horror movie hit "Smile" from 2022. This new excursion into that universe is even bloodier than the first. Paramount Pictures.

“Smile 2” Starring Naomi Scott, Rosemarie DeWitt, Lukas Gage. Directed by Parker Finn. Two hours, 7 minutes. Rated R. Theatrical release.

Plot summary: Comeback rock star Skye Riley finds herself stalked by the Smile Entity after witnessing the gruesome suicide of former classmate and sometime drug provider Lewis. A stranger, Morris, offers her a possible way of beating the entity.

Spoilers? None.

Del’s take

Halfway through “Smile 2” the couple behind me got up and left. I should have gone with them.

I didn’t like the movie.

Critics are raving. It was the top box-office draw its opening weekend. It’s well made and well acted. Director Finn and distributor Paramount are thinking about a threequel, I bet.

But lowly I, me, yours truly, didn’t like it. Why?

Because once upon a time horror movies were scary. “Smile 2” isn’t scary. It’s gross, violent and depressing, but it’s not scary.

I will say this: It’s got the coolest soundtrack I’ve heard in recent memory. And the cinematography was awesome. Upside aerials over the city? Very cool.

And the talent was invested in this film, no doubt. Naomi Scott and Rosemarie DeWitt were terrific. The others were good, some even memorable, like the creepy little girl at the meet-and-greet, who spoke nary a word but stared – and smiled.

But what can I say? I didn’t like the movie.

I remember a day when horror movies relied on storytelling, tension, and the audience’s imagination to make them scary. These days it’s all about jump scares and gore, and “Smile 2” is generously endowed with both. We get to see faces smashed with gym weights, jawbones ripped from skulls, daggers of glass pulled from bloody feet – it goes on and on. After awhile you just sit there in your movie theater seat, the soles of your shoes sticking to the gooey floor as this bloody spectacle plays out on the screen, the last molecule of empathy in your body bludgeoned into senselessness. The couple behind me missed the really bad parts.

Plus, it’s hard to feel anything for people who are so shitty, and every character in this movie is a creep to some degree, from burned-out ex-junkie Skye (Naomi Scott) to her insufferable stage mom Elizabeth (Rosemarie DeWitt) and looney drug dealer Lewis (Lukas Gage). Who cares if any of these guys gets a bedazzled microphone shoved through the eye?

Finally, what is the point of all this? What kind of object lesson are we supposed to learn? I tried to decide if  “Smile 2” was a treatise on the wages of guilt, or a condemnation of the hollowness of fame and those who chase it. In the end I decided it was nothing but a pointless bloodbath.

But don’t listen to me. The critics love it, and so do moviegoers. Box Office Mojo reports “Smile 2” earned $23 million its first weekend, which topped the charts. All those people, and all that money, can’t be wrong. Right?

I give it a grade of C. Too bloody, too violent, too depressing for lowly me.

Del Stone Jr. is a former journalist and writer.