Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Smile 2
AlthoughSmile 2features plenty of choice scares, the horror sequel is missing the 2022 original’s scariest sight. In many respects,director Parker Finn’s sequelSmile 2is an improvement on his 2022 sleeper hitSmile. The sequel is more ambitious, centering on Naomi Scott’s traumatized pop star Skye Riley instead of Sosie Bacon’s troubled psychologist. WhereSmileoperated at a lower register and saved its biggest shocks until its final act,Smile 2starts big and only gets bigger.Smile 2’s opening death kills off Joelin a sequence that combines crime thriller and supernatural horror perfectly.
What Singer Is Smile 2’s Skye Riley Based On?
Smile 2’s singer heroine Skye Riley might be fictional, but it is not impossible to work out who the musician sounds like and who she may be based on.
From thereon out, the death of Lukas Gage’s Lewis only ramps up the horror, while Skye’s rapidly worsening situation grows increasingly terrifying and surreal asSmile 2’s story continues.Smile 2’s brutal twist endingfeatures an abortive attempt to temporarily stop the heroine’s heart, a horrific murder sequence, and a lengthy car chase, proving that Finn can deftly blend horror and action. However, the finale is missing one element that madeSmile’s twist ending memorably chilling. Although the absence of one iconic villain makes sense in narrative terms, it is still hard not to miss them.
The Smile Entity’s Giant Monster Form Is Missing From Smile 2
Smile’s Ending Featured A Giant Grinning Monster
InSmile 2’s ending, theSmilefranchise’s curse is embodied as a skinless fifteen-foot-tall, many-mouthed monster that reveals itself to Skye while she is onstage at a sold-out concert. This monster appeared inSmile’s ending too, but only after the demon took on a far scarier, less surreal humanoid form. InSmile’s Stephen King-inspired twist ending, the heroine Rose confronts the ghost of her mother in the dilapidated shell of her childhood home, only for this apparition to suddenly turn into an eight-foot-tall humanoid with dark lanky hair, pale white skin, and a demented rictus grin.
Skye’s ordeal with the curse isn’t identical to Rose’s journey in the original movie.
Played by actor Marti Matulis,Smile’s “Monstrosity” is one of the most memorably unsettling movie monsters in years, and the humanoid monster is much more viscerally creepy than the Lovecraftian creature that it later becomes. Despite this,Smile 2dropped the Monstrosity and skipped straight to the monster’s wilder, less human incarnation. This does make more sense from a thematic perspective, as Skye’s ordeal with the curse isn’t identical to Rose’s journey in the original movie. Rose’s confrontation sees the demon take the form of her mother, then the Monstrosity, and then the bizarre giant demon, while Skye’s is different.
Why Smile 2 Doesn’t Utilize The Original Final Monster Form
Smile 2 Is Missing The Infamous Monstrosity
Skye’sSmile 2ending initially sees her face off against a smiling version of herself.Smile 2’s Smile Entityseemingly takes a different approach depending on its victim, meaning Skye has to confront her demonic doppelgänger whereas Rose has to deal with the Monstrosity. The real-life reason Matulis didn’t return inSmile 2might be that he was busy with his roles inEvilandThe Mandalorian, but this choice made an otherwise strong ending less scary. That said, it makes sense for the demon to bypass the Monstrosity form inSmile 2since, ultimately, Skye’s true greatest fear is herself.
