• Director: Parker Finn
• Screenplay: Parker Finn
• Cast: Naomi Scott, Rosemarie DeWitt, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Dylan Gelula, Raul Castillo, Peter Jacobson, Ray Nicholson, Lukas Gage, Kyle Gallner
• Cinematography: Charlie Sarroff
• Editing: Elliot Greenberg
• Score: Cristobal Tapia de Veer
• Genre: Psychological supernatural horror
• Runtime: 127 minutes

Set 6 days after the sequel-baiting ending of ‘Smile‘ (2022), we watch in horror as the chain of deaths caused by the supernatural curse continues. Said affliction (which causes the victim to have hallucinations of people demonically smiling, then later commit suicide) has reached global singing sensation Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) who’s having a rough time of it; she’s had a history of substance abuse and is haunted by the death of her boyfriend in a car crash (which she survived).

It’s the exact same premise as the first Smile; but the troubled pop star element was an interesting angle to explore as Skye, literally tearing her hair out worrying about the curse, and her decline in mental health reflects the life of a young singer in the spotlight, especially when they’re desperately trying to keep a squeaky-clean image in a social media age. I still can’t take it seriously though. Folks smiling creepily at you? Laughable. The only actor that pulls off the menacing grin is Ray Nicholson, son of the legendary Jack Nicholson (heeeere’s Johnny!).

Parker Finn’s trademark upside down aerial shots give it a trippy feel, and Skye Riley treats us to a couple of polished pop bangers plus choreography. Drew Barrymore appears in a cameo appearance as her talk show host self but thankfully she’s not practically in her guest’s lap as usual. A meagre amount of frights later, the wheels fall off big time in the third act, and while I won’t spoil anything here, the cliffhanger finale is a bit of a game changer. How the hell are they gonna resolve the situation in the inevitable Smile 3?

A slight improvement on the original – but that one was so dire I was praying for it to be over and done with. I had to grin and bear it. Faint praise indeed.

My rating: 4 / 10