The Smile Franchise is one of the most horrific psychological horror films ever. Smile 2 recently debuted on the big screens last fall, and it is outstandingly worse than the first one.
In the first Smile film, we get to enter the lore of the Smile, which viewers later find out how this demonic disease spreads, its purpose and perhaps its weakness. For those who may not remember, we start off with Rose, a licensed therapist who also deals with some problems of her own. The viewers follow her terrifying journey of trying to beat this demonic entity while also facing what might be real or false. As we know it, Rose develops this curse following one of her patients, then graphically ends themselves.
This demon is smart. It feeds off your greatest fears and taps into your reality to make it its own. This psychological horror has everyone questioning their existence throughout the film. Surprisingly, and to our knowledge, one escapes the demon but unfortunately ends up in jail for life. Tragically, Rose does not make it out alive and passes the curse onto her fellow partnership partner, Joel.
Smile 2 starts with Joel trying to fight off the demonic curse as well, but Joel is clever. He comes up with the idea to pass the curse onto bad people, such as drug dealers. Somehow the curse captures Joel with a local pick-up truck and the curse begins to pass onto the wrong person. The story gets worse from there by solely focusing on a pop star who faces constant grief, addiction, and mental health disorders far more problematic than Rose.
What makes Smile so fantastic is the music. If you listen to the soundtrack, it feels like you are in an eerie spiral of reality (like what the characters face in the movie). You never know when you will get out, but the world keeps spinning, right? In this sense, the movie makes you feel like you are trapped with the characters. Questioning your reality repeatedly. Even so, after the movie is over, you are left with a million questions. Is this real or is it fake? The director, Parker Finn, does a great job at answering neither question. It is simply up to the viewer to decide.
For those who are more curious about the lore, peek at Film Theories’ YouTube Video on ‘How to Beat the Smile Demon’. Film Theory takes multiple approaches to possibly beating the Smile demon, but none of these approaches truly work. Parker Finn takes one of Film Theories’ theories and combusts it into the Smile 2 movie, letting fans know that the smile demon is rare to beat while living happily and comfortably.
Besides from the film being great, one arguable statement that most may agree upon is the style of the Smile demon. This demon’s entity is slimy, fleshly bodied, and down-right disgusting. But others argue that they believe the demon should be different for everyone’s mind. Perhaps, the entity will later develop a new embodiment as time goes along.
Spoiler alert, the entity does not end there but travels to thousands of people at once. As fans, we are excited to see what takes place for the continuing series. It is rare to see the second film to be just as better than the first. Keep it up Finn, you are doing great with your weird and outlandish mind of psychological horror.
