🍪DoubleStuf Seven🍪’s review published on Letterboxd:
Unpretentious, clever, and truly scary, Smile 2 is an excellent film with top notch directing and writing from its creator, an alumnus of the University of Colorado Boulder. It’s refreshing to see a horror film that enjoys its genre without trying so hard to chase the “elevate” itself with social commentary. (Though it must be said that there are deeper readings one could take away.)
The best aspect of the film is how entertaining it is, never once dragging and always pulling another anxious scene or disturbing image out of its stocked arsenal. It maintains the horror throughout and never once makes it look difficult. The cinematography goes a long way in assisting this too.
I love how crazy everything in the movie is but it’s never so crazy that it takes you out of it, except maybe a portion of the finale.
In a year where Trap also provided us with a pop star character that comes with original music, Smile 2’s Skye Riley is clearly the superior artist with a much better song catalog. Which is funny because Naomi Scott is simply a Uber talented triple threat while Saleka is a real life singer who acted for the film. And on the subject of Scott, the hype is very much real.
I haven’t had a movie give me literal goosebumps in a long time. This series is now one of my favorite modern horror franchises. I wish I would have seen this in theaters.
- 2024 Ranked (currently 5/38)
🍪DoubleStuf liked this review
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