Parker Finn’s Smile kind of came out of nowhere and kind of set the horror world on fire in the fall of 2022. A film originally conceived as a streaming title, a feature adaptation of his previous short film Laura Hasn’t Slept, Smile fared so well with test audiences, it scored a prime Spooky Season theatrical release. Critics responded well to the film, deservedly so, as it was a super creepy, super intense and gory genre freakout, but also a fascinating story about trauma and how we handle mental illness. Smile was so successful a sequel was fast-tracked, also written and directed by Finn. That brings us up to speed on where we are today, with the release of Smile 2, a kind of miracle of a horror sequel – one that avoids so many of the sequel traps so often associated with this kind of horror movie.

Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) is a massively successful recording artist who is plotting a comeback after being out of the public eye for some time. About a year ago, Skye was involved in a car crash that killed her actor boyfriend. This followed years of bad decisions and drug and alcohol abuse. One night, she goes to an acquaintance’s house and he’s acting strange. He smiles creepily at her and then takes his own life in front of her, effectively passing the Smile curse along to her. While Skye struggles to keep up appearances in the week before launching her new world tour, she becomes increasingly terrified by this entity haunting her, as she starts to lose her grasp on what’s real and what isn’t.

It would be easy for writer/director Parker Finn to essentially do the same movie again here, and it’s refreshing that he’s doing something entirely different. Smile 2 is better than the first in every way. It’s twistier, more ambitious, more nerve-wracking and more psychologically punishing. It’s got a broader scope, more effective scares, and a sharper focus on something we didn’t have last time. This is a story about the pressures of celebrity and what can happen to a person when their entire life is heavily scrutinized by millions of people they don’t even know. Skye shouldn’t be a relatable character, but the way we delve into her psychological perspective early on drives up the intensity brilliantly in the insanely over-the-top third act.

Naomi Scott is giving an outstanding, all-timer scream queen performance here, and her work is the kind of thing that should be recognized if end-of-year critic voting groups were not so averse to the horror genre. A lot of work goes into making this character not only sympathetic, but relatable to a general audience, and Scott gives a remarkably empathetic performance of someone who is desperate for sanity, yet constantly losing her grip on reality. We have lots of dramatic close-ups, and she’s doing a lot of face acting, but there’s more here to challenge her than just your average horror performance. Scott also has to nail the pop star persona, and sing and perform the several original songs written for this film, and she does so very convincingly. I can easily imagine a world where Skye Riley would exist among the Lady Gagas and Taylor Swifts of the world, and these songs are actually quite good. I even found myself seeking out and downloading ‘The Skye Riley EP’ after I got home from the theater.

In our supporting cast, we have Rosemarie DeWitt as Skye’s emotionally manipulative mother/manager, who she feels uncomfortable talking about any of this with. I always enjoy seeing DeWitt, and she’s got some fun moments to play. Lukas Gage plays Lewis, the drug dealer Skye inherits the Smile curse from, and he’s an actor I also always like watching, and this is great proof he belongs in the horror genre. We’ve got good work from Miles Gutierrez-Riley and Dylan Gelula as well, and a memorable few scenes from Ryan Nicholson, son of the great Jack Nicholson, who has inherited so much of his father’s essence, it’s crazy.

If you’re a horror fan, it’s crucial you see this in a theater, because it’s an immersive and visceral experience from top to bottom. The sound design and score create a genuinely terrifying atmosphere early on, and never lets up. I also really loved Alexis Forte’s costume design. As in the first Smile, there’s also lots of interesting cinematography here. We have lots of inventive camerawork that amplifies the jump scares, including lots of long takes. Particularly an opening sequence that tells the story of what happened to the character Joel, played by Kyle Gallner, who we leave the last film on. That entire sequence is edited together to look like a single take and it’s kind of breathtaking how it’s put together and how effectively it thrusts the viewer back into the world of this story. It’s also important to note that Smile 2 assumes you’ve seen Smile 1. There is no recap and no exposition early in the story, and the uninitiated might be a bit confused in the beginning. Maybe glance at the Wikipedia synopsis for that movie beforehand if you don’t have time for a rewatch.

Parker Finn has now made two horror films that shook me to my core and made me so profoundly uncomfortable for the entire duration, that I left the theater feeling shaken and not quite right mentally. For someone who’s seen as much horror as I have, it’s hard for something like this to get to the point where something truly gets under your skin, so much so that you feel like ripping your own eyes out of your head after seeing what you’ve seen. And Finn has done that twice now. And if the ending of Smile 2 is any indication, he’s nowhere near done telling this story. Smile 2 ratchets the tension and visceral terror up to an almost unbearable level, and it’s perfect for the Halloween season. See it in a theater with a crowd, see it in a premium format where the seats shake and vibrate to the action. It’s a hell of a fun time, but it also continues the conversation about mental health that the first one started, in a meaningful way.