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Review: ‘Smile 2’ — Larger Scale, Lower Ambition
Parker Finn’s 2024 horror sequel is striking but over-reliant on the structure of its predecessor
Parker Finn’s 2022 feature debut Smile was a film that proved a massive surprise. Not only was it marketed brilliantly by having people appear in public doing the titular creepy smile into cameras in the middle of crowds, but it was a film that actually deserved such a fun marketing campaign because it was a (relative) breath of fresh air. In a time where the horror genre seemingly only has two strands that have a chance at success — studios seem to believe that horror must either be unserious jumpscare-fests often accompanied with self-reflexive/self-aware criticisms of the genre, or they must be metaphorically about the trauma of their protagonists (more on this in my review for the lamentable Cuckoo) — Smile found a fun way to toe the line between the two. Finn’s popular short film Laura Hasn’t Slept (2020) proved that Finn had found potential for a working horror formula that, despite not being very different at all, at least felt somewhat new, an altered take on a genre that feels quite worn out in the mainstream with the rare exception to the rule.
That short film, about a young woman explaining her inability to sleep to her therapist, merges the unserious…
