IAN 🎄❄️’s review published on Letterboxd:
ok guys give me a minute…
so when it comes to the first Smile film, i thought it was just ok. i saw it once back in December 2022 and again, i wasn’t super enamored with it. i thought it was generic and kind of a poor ripoff of It Follows. when the trailers and posters were coming out for Smile 2, i’m not gonna lie i wasn’t excited like at all. i thought it was gonna be the same movie as the first but with different characters.
which technically it kinda was but holy shit did this blow me away. first off i have to applaud the cinematography and overall direction of the film. there are so many shots in here that were so well filmed! specifically two scenes. the opening scene with Kyle Gallner, which was majority a one take shot. and then the car scene which everyone is talking about. talk about nerves and anxiety, fucking hell. and i believe that scene was one continuous shot. so phenomenally done.
huge props to Parker Finn when it came to directing this thing. second thing i want to praise is the acting performances. ok guys so i guess Naomi Scott is kind of a big deal, and sorry but this was my introduction to her and DAMN! what a phenomenal actress that really tackled the role perfectly. she brought the perfect amount of emotion and energy that a character like that really needed, and in my eyes her performance within the first hour of the film, completely obliterated Sosie Bacon’s performance from the first film. also Ray Nicholson chewed up every small scene he was in… and god damn did he look just like his dad while doing it.
another thing i want to praise is something i touched on earlier, but the characters and overall premise of this film. a pop star was a smart idea for this concept, especially for the cliffhanger alone. but the world building and character development immediately sucked me in big time. the idea of this singer just trying her hardest to get her shit back together and keep her image squeaky clean really fucking worked.
and of course the horror nerd in me really appreciated the healthy mix of cgi and practical gore, even though i’ll never like cgi blood. and last thing i’m gonna gush over is the psychological elements of this film. one of the most impressive psychological horror movies i’ve seen in awhile! overall Smile 2 is easily the biggest surprise of the year, and another contender for horror of the year. fuck man i can’t believe how amazing this movie turned out.
currently everyone is raging hard that Parker Finn has been recently given the job to remake the all time classic Possession, but after seeing his potential with this, fuck man give me five more Parker Finn movies RIGHT NOW! i’m really excited to see his take on Possession now. but yeah watch Smile 2, even if you disliked the first one, it’s amazing.
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