Starring Naomi Scott, Rosemarie DeWitt, Lukas Gage, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Peter Jacobson, Ray Nicholson, Dylan Gelula, Raúl Castillo and Kyle Gallner

Written and directed by Parker Finn

Paramount

Six days after the events of the first movie, Joel (Kyle Gallner) tries to pass the Smile entity onto a drug dealer. In the ensuing bloodbath, the dealer and Joel are both killed but Lewis (Lukas Gage) survives. Which means Lewis is carrying the entity when rehabbing pop star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) visits, asking for Vicodin for her back injury. Lewis kills himself in front of her and suddenly the Smile entity finds itself presented with a feast…

Parker Finn understands the most important element of a Smile movie isn’t the monster, it’s the victims. Sosie Bacon, who cameos here alongside equally impressive Smile 1 player Kyle Gallner, anchored the first movie with her portrayal of a focussed, near obsessive woman fighting her problem by understanding it. Scott’s character isn’t anywhere near as well equipped but she’s even more intense.

Scott’s been doing great work for years and this is one of the best performances in any movie, horror or not, you’ll see this year. Skye is brittle and penitent and doing the work to get herself right. She’s exhausted, in pain and not stopping and Finn’s script wraps the thorns of her depression and trauma around the Smile creature and a detailed examination of the pressures of fame. Rosemarie DeWitt and Scott’s scenes as mother and daughter are a secondary backbone to the movie, showing us the complex interdependency of a mother who’s also an employee and a child who’s also a business. The core of the movie is that relationship and the constant tension it creates only elevates the horror. Skye’s relationship with her estranged best friend, Gemma, also plays into this and Dylan Gelula’s laconic delivery provides some desperately needed comedy.

With that human core, Finn builds out an elaborate nightmare that alternates uncomfortably tense rehearsal and rehabilitation with jump scares and terror. The initial transmission of the Smile creature is returned to again and again via a horrifically wet, pulpy sound effect that actually made me wince. The main beats of the original are here too, expanded and exploded to a point where this feels like the creature’s world. A horrifying car accident turns a human into a blood and gore smile on the tarmac, Skye is haunted by her injuries and former addictions as much as the Smile itself and as time goes on we get context for everything she does even if she doesn’t. It’s complex and inventive stuff that pulls no punches and takes every chance.

For some viewers that’s going to be a problem. Smile 2 makes some choices, throughout its runtime, which are going to either impress or annoy you and they’re not the kind of choice that can be spoiled. All I will say is this: you’ll have more to think about leaving this movie than you expect, and much as the scale of the first movie is expanded, the scale is exploded here.

Verdict: Smile 2 is ambitious, gleefully unpleasant and has one of the best leading performances you’ll see this year. Be ready to work a little, but if you are, the payoff is worth it. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart