Smile 2

Parker Finn puts the curse inside a pop career this time. Skye Riley is days from a comeback tour and can no longer sort what is in the room from what is in her head. Kyle Gallner returns from the first film, and the curse passes to a bystander who happens to be watching. Naomi Scott has said she built Skye out of Lady Gaga in the early 2010s and Britney Spears. Ray Nicholson was cast as a nod to his father’s role in The Shining, and Drew Barrymore appears as herself, interviewing Skye on her own talk show. Cinematographer Charlie Sarroff, editor Elliot Greenberg and composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer all carried over. Shooting ran through the early months of 2024 in the Hudson Valley and New York City. Paramount launched it like a real pop release: an Instagram account in Skye Riley’s name, billboards, 2 Interscope singles and an EP a week ahead of the film, with Scott singing the songs. Made for $28 million, it took $138.1 million worldwide. A good fit if you want the fear to come from a person coming apart under stage lighting rather than from the curse mechanics. Not for viewers who cannot sit through drawn out suicide and self harm scenes; the film opens and closes on them.