Returning writer-director Parker Finn’s horror sequel “Smile 2” (Paramount) features a hard-driving performance from its star, Naomi Scott, as well as a good deal of clever levity. Neither of these assets, however, can compensate for the graphic gore all too frequently displayed in this follow-up to Finn’s 2022 original.
Scott plays Skye Riley, a hugely successful but personally troubled pop singer. On the rebound from a car accident in which she was severely injured, Skye has given up the booze and the drugs she formerly abused and is about to launch a world tour.
Bothered by back pain, however, Skye visits Lewis (Lukas Gage), the pusher who used to supply her, hoping to buy the Vicodin no doctor will prescribe for her due to her history of addiction. She finds Lewis in a wildly distraught state and is soon horrified to witness his bizarre and gruesome suicide — throughout which he smiles at her maniacally.
In the wake of this trauma, Skye begins to have a series of hallucinations in which various people grimace at her in the same way Lewis had and then attack her. Her assailants include the ghost of her former boyfriend, Paul (Ray Nicholson), an actor who perished in the crash that almost claimed her own life.
The weird behavior these visions inspire on Skye’s part endangers the revival of her career. It also leaves both Skye’s mother Elizabeth (Rosemarie DeWitt), who doubles as her manager, and her best friend, Gemma (Dylan Gelula), bewildered. Only Morris (Peter Jacobson), a concerned stranger who reaches out to Skye, seems to understand what’s happening.
Even as it seeks to unsettle viewers, Finn’s movie makes humorous hay out of human foibles in general and the eccentricities of show folk in particular. But access to these more enjoyable elements comes at the prohibitive cost of watching nauseous, sometimes torturous, sights that could easily have been left offscreen.
The film contains excessive bloody violence, numerous grisly images, narcotics use, partial nudity, about a dozen profanities, several milder oaths, relentless rough language, considerable crude and crass talk and an obscene gesture. The OSV News classification is O — morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
