sad horror sequel lacks the unique’s twinkle

“Music did virtually kill me,” declares Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), the haunted protagonist on the centre of Smile 2. A pop star – suppose Woman Gaga meets Britney Spears – Skye has come again from the brink of medicine, alcohol and “a variety of unhealthy choices”, following a automobile accident that took the lifetime of her actor-boyfriend. Even with out this, she’s driving herself into the bottom – relentless touring, the pressures of fame and being hounded by followers who simply need to put up a clip of her on their TikTok.

Music certainly might be the demise of her – have been it not for the demonic entity she’ll quickly be battling. As anybody will know who noticed Parker Finn’s Smile, it’s all a few spirit or presence that infests its human host like a parasite, inflicting weird hallucinations (others grinning in entrance of the contaminated like The Joker on acid) and finally inducing suicide. Gory, nasty and recent as newly-baked bread, no surprise it grew to become the breakout horror hit of 2022 – making a whopping $217million worldwide.

Whereas the primary movie centred on a psychiatrist, this refresh offers us a complete new world – full with costumes adjustments and choreographed dance routines. After a prologue involving some evil drug sellers who get their grisly comeuppance, the story switches to Skye, who’s glimpsed on Drew Barrymore’s chat present, telling audiences “I’m grateful for this second probability and I don’t need to waste it.”

Flanked by her mom (Rosemarie DeWitt, glorious) and assistant (Miles Gutierrez-Riley), Skye is already frazzled. With a worldwide tour about to start out, she’s additionally meant to talk at a profit for underprivileged kiddies and her again – because of that automobile accident – is enjoying up. In want of Vicodin, it’s when she pays a visit to her seller, Lewis (The White Lotus‘ Lukas Gage) that she runs slap bang into the unnamed entity, simply because it causes him to bash his personal face in with a fitness center weight.

Instantly, Skye begins getting all of the signs, visualising nightmarish situations – together with, at one level, a gaggle of followers in tableau-like kind coming ever nearer to her (it’s genuinely creepy). And who’s it that retains texting her anonymously, saying he is aware of that she was current at Lewis’ home when he died? As slick as one in every of Skye’s dance routines, Finn retains the suspense going for some time not less than, as he cranks up the wince-inducing moments (bones snap, pores and skin torn off, you identify it).

Sadly, Smile 2 doesn’t really feel as recent as its predecessor. Partly as a result of it borrows liberally from movies like Flatliners (and tries to out-gore The Substance for all of the bloody prosthetics). Others movies, like Brady Corbet’s Vox Lux, have additionally completed the teenager pop star narrative higher. And in essence that is only a re-run of the primary film, simply in a barely glitzier surroundings. However because of Naomi Scott, who beforehand featured in Man Ritchie’s live-action model of Aladdin, there’s a flawed feminine heroine to root for. Is it scary? Not often, to be sincere. Nevertheless it is aware of find out how to twist the knife, not less than.