Smile was a surprise smash hit two years ago, so a sequel soon became inevitable with Parker Finn returning to again both write and direct. Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) is a pop singer, recovering from a drugs fuelled incident that nearly killed her, who begins to experience a series of increasingly disturbing events as she is about to go on tour.
This is a very mixed film that is subsequently quite hard to rate. It ties in with the first one well, starting six days after that one ended, with an excellent pre credits sequence. Skye’s meeting with a drug dealer that sets off the chain of events is also suitably intense and gory. There is then quite a lull. Skye is a very unlikable character and the scenes of her slowly falling apart whilst trying to resurrect her career go on too long. There is also one of my pet hates in this period, with Skye waking from a nightmare and sitting bolt upright, gasping for breath. On the plus side, there is unexpectedly one of the funniest moments in movies this year, although to be fair, I was the only in the cinema laughing!
Things pick up with the introduction of a nurse, Morris, who has a plan to save Skye and stop the curse being passed on. I would have liked to have seen more of that character as Peter Jacobson is terrific in the role.
As we get towards the climax it becomes very unclear about what is or is not real. That is fair enough, as our confusion mirrors Skye’s, but I am not convinced that Finn would know either! The very last scene, though, is a bold one and a third movie seems a certainty.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10