Rated R

SMILE 2 follows a trouble pop star on the verge of a world tour. She witnesses a traumatic event and then discovers an entity has attached itself to her, appearing as horrifying visions of people smiling.

Where the first film was a lower-budgeted slow burn, this one goes big with intensity. Not just with jump scares and sound effects, but with a pounding soundtrack meant to be heard in the loudest cinema possible. Along with TRAP, it’s the second what if this happened to Taylor Swift thriller this year.

Noami Scott is the MVP, carrying the film and never behaving like the horror genre is beneath her. Her commitment to the character keeps things real… even if it’s loaded with dark fantasy.

Like other movies about a curse following victims – like THE RING or IT FOLLOWS – the SMILE series offers some interesting allegorical moments, even if the trauma-as-horror trope is a bit overworked.

Visually interesting and loaded with shocking moments, SMILE 2 gets three and a half grins out of five. I’m Kevin Carr, and that’s the way I see it.

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