Smile 2 is no Trap or Longlegs in its tepid vision of pop star scares and unhinged horror

In October 1982, cartoonist Gary Larson published a Far Side cartoon that would forever change his career. The single-panel comic strip featured a cow, standing upright and staring straight at the viewer, poised right behind a table showing a quartet of tools she's crafted. The caption? "Cow tools". It was a hysterical cartoon, that cow's stare alone is priceless. However, back in 1982, readers went nuts searching for meaning in the cartoon. So many letters were written to Larson and various newspapers begging for answers that this artist eventually penned a statement outlining his comedic intent behind the comic.

Beyond that statement, though, Larson never diluted Cow Tools in subsequent Far Side comics. There were no attempts to write off this enjoyably bizarre entity as “all a dream”. Nor did he doodle up cartoons that self-mockingly parodied Cow Tools. Instead, Larson stood by his creation, audience confusion be damned. A potential source of embarrassment instead let Larson demonstrate creative conviction. He stuck to his principles producing further cow-centric and bizarre comics in subsequent years. Unfortunately, not all art shares that same dedication to the jarring. Smile 2, for instance, has a bad habit of undercutting its strangest tendencies. A little bit of that Cow Tools magic could’ve made this horror sequel chillingly bovine, er, divine.

Call musician Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) a 2003 Kenny Chesney single because she's a "big star". This famous pop singer is coming off a year of rehab after a fateful coke-fueled car crash that killed her boyfriend and gave her serious back injuries. Struggling with addiction and lingering pain, Riley is still trying to launch her own equivalent to The Eras Tour. A trip to grab some Vicodin from old friend Lewis (Lukas Gage), unfortunately, goes in an unexpectedly brutal direction. Lewis kills himself in front of Riley. Unbeknownst to her, he passes on The Monstrosity (as Smile 2's end credits call it) from the first Smile to her.

This creature psychologically plagues people for seven days, playing on their self-criticisms and weaknesses. After that week, The Monstrosity kills its “host”. Not only that, but it makes the whole thing look like a suicide to the rest of the world. Riley initially has no clue about this process audiences previously saw in the original Smile. She knows she’s unraveling as visions of events and smiling people nobody else can see plague her. With time running out, Riley might have to take drastic action on the advice of total stranger Morris (Peter Jacobson), who has some important knowledge about The Monstrosity.

Writer/director Parker Finn's first Smile was conceived and filmed as a Paramount+ movie. Only in post-production did its release trajectory drastically change in going to movie theaters instead. Smile 2, meanwhile, is a costlier enterprise designed from the ground up for the big screen. Immediately, Finn and cinematographer Charlie Sarroff lean into grander visual possibilities with a lengthy single-take sequence involving Smile character Joel (Kyle Gallner) on his final day plagued by The Monstrosity. It’s an elaborate set piece firmly establishing this follow-ups greater scope and ambitions.

However, the more things change in some respects, the more they stay the same. Like its predecessor, Smile 2 often works better as a dark comedy than a straightforward horror movie. Certain grim sight gags are deeply amusing. The best of these is Riley returning to a text message thread full of her own horrible barbs at a former friend only to type out the banal "Hi, how are you". Miles Gutierrez-Riley's very calm and chipper line deliveries as Riley's dutiful assistant, meanwhile, amusingly contrast with his constantly intense employer. Finn’s comedic tendencies really hew close to visual impulses you’d expect from a big broad mid-2000s comedy, like an old woman getting punched and flung across a ritzy ballroom.  All those moments are missing is a “That’s What I Like About You” needle drop!

October moviegoers aren’t coming to Smile 2 looking for examples of Finn leaning into theatrical film aesthetics or even dark jokes. These souls want to get scared out of their gourds. On that front, Smile 2 is only fitfully successful. Practical effects work on some gooey bodily injuries are the most consistent source of chills in this enterprise. Otherwise, Finn frustratingly relies too heavily on cheap jump scares to carry the day. It doesn’t help that the entire movie is bathed in excessively bright lighting lathering sterileness to seemingly grotesque moments. More varied lighting would’ve gone a long way to making some of these dangling cheekbones and dislodged eyeballs extra eerie.

The biggest problem with Smile 2’s scares, though, is its lack of commitment. Finn and company conclude nearly every big chilling set piece with some variation of “it was all a dream”. No matter how disturbing something is, it’ll prove to be non-existence in just a few minutes. This repetitive resolution becomes especially noticeable in a third act consisting almost exclusively of rug-pulls. It’s hard to get invested in a horror feature lacking the conviction to let the preposterous have actual ripple effects in the narrative. It's all just setups for fleeting "twists".

Compare Smile 2 to vastly superior motion pictures like Lost Highway or Longlegs. In those titles, outlandish behavior, creepy imagery, or surreal touches aren’t constantly explained away as existing in one’s imagination. They instead plow full steam ahead into nightmare realms. These are cinematic domains where the impossible is common and horrific sights don't just exist in one’s imagination. Smile 2, meanwhile, lacks that conviction. This feature always quickly explains where scares originate from and even occasionally employs snarky one-liners to further undercut the freakiness. Gary Larson stood by the divisive humor of Cow Tools. Smile 2 is far less self-assured with its scariest imagery.

Smile 2’s prologue proves its strongest section because it lacks these faults. It’s just a straightforward plunge into darkness full of random chaos. The rest of the movie, meanwhile, pairs underwhelming frights with unoriginal commentary on celebrity existence.  Skye Riley’s addiction-riddled struggles don’t break new ground for movies about tormented pop stars. To add insult to injury, the few pop songs we hear from Riley aren’t especially memorable. Among fictitious 2024 cinema pop singers, Trap's Lady Raven easily outdoes Smile 2’s leading lady.

If there’s a highlight in Smile 2, though, it is the woman bringing Skye Riley to life. Naomi Scott plunges into this role with aplomb. Not only is Scott engaging to watch on-screen, she displays a deep commitment to Riley’s most unhinged moments. When Smile 2 calls for her to channel her inner Mia Goth, she’s up to the task. The movie she inhabits tiptoes around embracing the deranged, but Scott never waves in fidelity to her character’s madness. If only Smile 2 was half as good as her lead performance. Unfortunately, this dreadfully overlong sequel is populated with half-hearted scares executed with little panache. Cow Tools displayed a devotion to idiosyncratic creativity. Smile 2, meanwhile, scrambles to undercut and explain away its strangest impulses. With that shortcoming, Smile 2, unlike Cow Tools, won't put smiles on people's faces.