After releasing the first Smile in 2022, the movie franchise is back with its second release, Smile 2. After coming out on October 18, 2024, this movie brought a whole new brand of characters and plot.

With the movie being completely different from the original, Smile 2 brought back a lot of the same formats. The gory scenes, the expected jumpscares, and fatal smile. However, this movie has grown and learned from some of its mistakes it made in the original. Smile 2 is almost thirty minutes longer than the first, but it felt like the movie executed what it was supposed to do: to get gradually worse, dark, and twisted, rather than the previous where it dragged on and almost felt like we were waiting for it to end. 

However, the improvements can’t take away what we are still consistently seeing. The movie scenes were expected and predictable. In almost every horror movie out there, people can tell what is going to happen just by the suspense being built up or the background music telling us that the movie is about to shake up. 

In some ways, using sounds can help a movie and at moments in this movie, it did. However, to really take that next step as a movie franchise, this movie did not really differentiate from their first film in terms of how to try and scare people. With a whole new set of characters, it would’ve been better to add something new to the effects of the film.

An aspect of the movie that stood out was the performance from Naomi Scott playing Skye Riley, the main character of the film. You could almost feel her mental pain she experiences during the movie. Portraying a person with mental health isn’t easy, but she brought life to the movie which helped this movie bring out a twisted and terrifying vibe. 

The conclusion of this movie was very much similar to the original with the Smile franchise not ending. When it comes to Smile and Smile 2, the endings were both incredible. Both movies end on cliffhangers where we don’t know what is going to happen next. The background of this demonic entity isn’t clear throughout both movies. The uncertainty of the movie keeps this movie on its feet. Overall, Smile 2 is a solid horror film. Even though it is not much different from the first movie, the different characters brought the best out of it. Naomi Scott had a phenomenal performance portraying a character that has had mental health issues and drug problems.