Smile 2

Smile 2 is everything you might expect from a sequel in the pure Hollywood sense: doing the same thing, but bigger (for better or worse). This continuation picks up shortly after the events of the first Smile and now follows a new protagonist: pop superstar Skye Riley (Aladdin's Naomi Scott), who is relaunching her career after a stint of substance abuse and controversies that ended in an accident claiming her boyfriend's life (Ray Nicholson) and almost took hers as well. However, Skye also falls into the clutches of the mental 'entity' that will drive her to self-destructive madness in six days, and she must find a way to escape. The film proposes interesting elements in its production design and in presenting a story from the angle of guilt (as opposed to the depression in the first). However, director and writer Parker Finn has essentially made the same movie as the previous one, relying on (and abusing) the same elements: jump scares and actors looking directly at the camera with a creepy smile. It can become tiresome and repetitive after a while, but if you enjoyed the first film and want more of the same, you'll undoubtedly enjoy Smile 2.