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Smile 2is the long-awaited horror sequel to the 2022 smash hit byParamount. The movie was directed by Parker Finn, and it stars Naomi Scott as a pop star who begins experiencing a string of disturbing hallucinations before heading out on a long-awaited tour. The movie also features a special guest appearance by Kyle Gallner, who reprises his role from the first movie in a shocking opening sequence that really sets the tone. It’s bigger in scale than the first movie, and also reaches new levels of gnarly nastiness.
After the huge success ofSmile, a sequel was announced soon after, with Finn returning to direct.Smile 2was released in theaters worldwide on Jun 04, 2025, and it has received largely positive reviews with a critics' score of 85% onRotten Tomatoes. It’ll go head-to-head with another horror sequel,Terrifier 3, in a spooky season battle at the box office, after it beatJoker: Folie à deuxto the top spot last week.
Smile 2
Starring
Naomi Scott, Rosemarie DeWitt, Lukas Gage, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Peter Jacobson, Raúl Castillo, Dylan Gelula, Ray Nicholson and Kyle Gallner
Directed By
Parker Finn
Smile 2begins six days after Rose Cotter’s suicide in2022’s horror hit, and ex-police officer, Joel (Kyle Gallner), is trying to pass the Smile entity onto two criminals at their secret hideout. He shoots and kills one of the criminals, which leads to a shootout with the other one, who dies soon after. Lewis Fregoli (Lukas Gage), a drug dealer who was set to be a witness, sees the events unfold and is haunted by the curse instead. Joel flees the scene, but he is brutally killed by an oncoming vehicle.
The events relocate to New York City, and follow pop star, Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), as she gets ready for a huge comeback tour. She’s been out of action for a while following issues with drugs and a car crash that killed her partner, Paul Hudson (Ray Nicholson), and she isdealing with unresolved traumafrom that. Her mother and manager, Elizabeth (Rosemarie DeWitt), and her assistant, Joshua (Miles Gutierrez-Riley), keep her under strict supervision to keep her on the straight and narrow. However, she slips out to buy some painkillers from her friend, Lewis, to help with her bad back caused by the crash. But, Lewis is in a bad way and is acting strangely, and smashes his face with a weight plate and dies. Knowing the potential ramifications for her, Skye decides not to call the police and flees the scene. Skye tries to put the incident behind her and prepares for her tour, but this is when the hallucinations begin, which includes people weirdly smiling at her. She is also pressured by her mother into speaking at a charity event, while also reconnecting with her old friend Gemma, after a year of not speaking.
Later that night, Skye has a nightmare about Paul’s death before receiving a message from an unknown number, with them claiming to know Skye is in danger. At the charity event, the teleprompter stops, causing Skye to go off-topic about all her problems. It starts up again, and Skye gets back on track with her speech up to and including a prompt that includes a mention of her deceased husband, Paul. This is followed by a hallucination of Paul grinning at her, and she mistakenly attacks an elderly person, which causes further damage to her already strained relationship with her record label.
Key Facts About Smile 2
Intrigued by the unknown number that has followed up with yet another cryptic message, Skye arranges to meet with the person in question, and it’sSmile 2’s new character, Morris. He has a vested interest in the mysterious entity, as it killed his brother. He informs Skye that it is possible for the curse to be lifted, but it comes with one caveat: Sky will have to be clinically dead to release the entity, as it just keeps transferring to the next person otherwise. So, if Skye dies, there’s no host. Morris says he will bring her back to life, once the host has left.
Later on, Skye is rehearsing and is attacked by the entity again. She blames the back-up dancers, but they look baffled by her accusatory nature. The director confirms that there was no attack, and when Skye looks down at her leg, there is no sign of any injury, and it was just another hallucination. Her concussion fuels a traumatic flashback to the night of the fatal car accident. Skye and Paul were having a huge argument, and it ended with a drug-addled Skye reaching over and taking the wheel, causing the horrific crash, and Paul’s subsequent death.
How Does Smile 2 End?
Skye wakes up in a rehab clinic, with her mother, Elizabeth, at her bedside. However, she is too busy scalding Skye over her recent behavior, to notice the pain she is going through. She is also hell-bent on getting her to finish the tour when she is in no fit mental state to do so. Skye is possessed yet again by the entity, and this causes her to lunge at Elizabeth and stab her repeatedly, killing her. She escapes her room, and heads toward the exit. She sees Joshua on her way out, and he alerts security about her impending escape. However, Skye gets away, and jumps in a car. She is stopped by Gemma, who throws a round of coffee drinks over her shoulder and pledges her allegiance to her longtime friend, and jumps in the car with her and gets behind the wheel.
Ride or Die
On the journey to meet with Morris to go through with their plan, Skye is shocked to get a call from Gemma, despite her friend sitting next to her in the car. Turns out, Gemma is actually the entity, and has been posing as her throughout. Skye manages to meet with Morris at a run-down pizza joint, and here’s the plan: he’ll stop her heart by putting her into a big freezer for a period of time, and he’ll wait for the entity to leave her body. He leaves Skye in the freezer, and doesn’t return. As she is lying on the table, blood is dripping onto her from above, and she sees that the entity has inhabited a younger version of herself, and it lands on top of her and a fight ensues. Skye is able to inject herself with a needle to stop her heart just in time. But, it’s all still a hallucination, and Skye is jolted into the opening night of her big comeback tour, and everyone, including Elizabeth, (who is very much alive again). The entity has manifested itself as a huge monster, with a great big mouth (smiling, of course) and it crawls inside Skye’s body after she rips open her stomach, and ina bleak ending, she is now possessed, and stabs herself in the eye, and dies. The curse has now passed onto everyone in the audience who witnessed the horrific events.
