It would be easy to dismiss “Smile” as just another seasonal scare-fest. However, something a bit deeper was going on with the 2022 horror offering about a supernatural entity that, once it grabbed hold of a host, caused them to see others around them smiling in the creepiest and most maniacal of ways. Within a few days, the increasingly haunted person commits suicide, allowing the parasite to leap to another person who had witnessed the death.
Sure, the smiling could be seen as gimmicky, but, overall, the film from writer-director Parker Finn seemingly has something to say about struggles with mental health. Audiences certainly didn’t dismiss “Smile,” the movie raking in more than $200 million at the worldwide box office on a reported budget of well under $20 million. That kind of return on investment leads to a studio greenlighting a sequel, and, thus just over two years later, “Smile 2” hit theaters last week.
Armed with what our eyes tell us was a much larger budget, Bath native Finn has delivered again with a film that is both highly entertaining and consistently disturbing — and a step up from “Smile.” “Smile 2” is, at various points, funny and absurd and, at others, unsetting and heartbreaking. It begins six days after the events of “Smile,” which saw the entity jump from deceased psychiatrist Rose Cotter (unseen “Smile” star Sosie Bacon) to her ex-boyfriend, police officer Joel (a returning Kyle Gallner).
He has a plan to rid himself of.