KSL Movie Show review: ‘Smile 2’ is NOT a cash grab

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SALT LAKE CITY — Horror movie or not, it’s pretty hard to ignore a successful film that spent $17 million (not including marketing) to make $216 million in theaters worldwide. 2022’s “Smile” was such a surprise, a certifiable hit, that Paramount had planned to send it straight to streaming until it blew the mind of a test audience, and the rest is history.

Well, except now Writer/Director Parker Finn knew he had struck gold, but was smart enough to realize that just mimicking the original was a no-go and, besides, he’d held back some of the finer details on the “Smile Entity,” enough to give him more ideas to play with.

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So with nearly double the budget (which can sometimes cloud creativity), Finn came up with a new horror experience that not only looks more expensive and expansive, but actually manages to heighten the chills and spills above the previous effort.

In simpler terms, fans of the first film will not be disappointed in the least with what he’s come up with on a return visit to the wacky, insane world of Smile.

This sequel begins just six days after the first one ended. If you recall, Joel (Kyle Gallner) who played Dr. Rose Cotter’s former boyfriend, has now figured out that he must pass on the demon curse, and who better to hang it on then two reprehensible drug dealing murderers. The trick is one of them has to become a host, become mentally tortured to eventual suicide, but do it in the presence of another onlooker, who then becomes the new host, and so on. I know. Pretty sick stuff.

However, his plan backfires as he accidentally kills both bad guys, but fortunately (and I use that word loosely), another unseen idiot druggie, standing mortified against a wall, witnesses the whole mess, while Joel runs screaming out of the house into oncoming traffic, leaving a bloody skid mark in the shape of a smile — gross — and scene.

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Eventually, the idiot druggie dude named Lewis (Lukas Cage) gets a late-night phone call from a famous singer Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) who is struggling for pain killers from a bad car accident. And since the entity is done messing with Lewis, who better to commit suicide in front of than an actual celebrity? Now the creepy nightmare can recommence in earnest.

If it sounds like I’m giving away too much, I haven’t. All this stuff is just the warmup to where Finn wants to take his bizarre fans next.

As you’re aware, I don’t enjoy these sick and twisted storylines, but I have to admit a lot of wildly-creative thought went into putting this all together. So rest assured, this is not a cash grab, but one man’s warped vision of what he truly believes is terrifying to the human mind. On that note, he did his job disturbingly well.