Editors Note: This article contains spoilers for Smile 2
Summary
One of the reasons the best horror movies, likeSmile 2,stand out from the pack is that the film is able to do more than just scare people in the moment. Jump scares are all fun and games, but at some point, they lose their luster. They can even annoy if a flick is filled with nothing but one monster, ghost,or ghoul jumping out at the audience.
What really makes a movie likeSmile 2stand out is that when people leave the theater, they are still spooked, but they are also talking about everything they saw in the movie. They’ll talk about more than just thetwists and turns of how it endedor what happened to the heroes or the villains. They’ll also talk about any symbolism that might have been buried in the plot. And for Smile 2, some fascinating symbolism was buried in its story, which would only have worked because of who the movie’s main character was.
The Duality Of Smile 2’s Skye Riley
At first glance, there are a couple of different reasons why the main character inSmile 2was a pop star because it simplyraises the stakes for everyoneinvolved. People who saw the trailers and realized the person the smile demon would come after in the much anticipated sequel was because the demon saw a way to get after more people than one at a time. But it turns out there was much more to the plot than just trying to keep the monster away from a fuller hunting ground. There was also the duality of the personality of the star of the show in Skye Riley.
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
Riley entersSmile 2trying to rebuilda career after a year away from the limelight. As the movie progresses the audience learns that there was a car accident of some kind that left her scarred both emotionally and physically. She is also a recovering addict who is trying to put her substance abuse problems behind her as long as the accident that killed her boyfriend. And she’s overcoming all of this while trying to get used to being in front of audiences again.
While working to become the pop star she once was, it’s clear that she has some things standing in her way. There’s a bad back from the accident that causes her to have problems going through her choreography and there’s some insecurities that are deeply ingrained. Those insecurities are demonstrated early and often and interestingly enough they are almost always shown with the use of a mirror. The most specific and direct statement is when Skye is standing in front of a mirror and looking at the large scar that goes down the front of her stomach. She’s disgusted by it andeven calls herself disgusting, while the rest of the world sees a rather beautiful woman.
From then on, mirrors play a massive role inSmile 2, including thefirst sighting of the Smile demonas she stands in front of the mirror and the monster, in the form of her recently dead friend shows up behind her, but only in the mirror.
How Mirrors Drive The Smile 2 Plot
Major Smile 2 spoilers incoming
As the movie goes on, mirrors make several other appearances. In fact, the mirrors change as the perception of her through the movie changes. Mirrors shatter as the audience learns more about the real Skye Riley. And then the movie shows us that Riley is the reason she was in an accident at all.That she and her boyfriendwere in the most toxic of toxic relationships and her injuries and his death are very much her fault.
Mirrors play a part in her believing that she killed her mother with shards of a mirror, and finally, she has to do battle with a mirror image of herself. First, it’s the mirror image (at first upside down) of her suspended in the carimmediately after the accident, and then slowly but surely, that mirror image becomes more identical to her as the ending of the movie is revealed and the final rug is pulled out from under her.
At the same time that she is confronted with the “real” person she is, the one that the public doesn’t see, there is a brief period of time when the public persona is once again on stage and performing before she comes back into herself. This is theending ofSmile 2when she’s confronted with her mirror image one more time. And she succumbs to this image, which is really the smiling demon as it takes her over, kills her, and infects her audience. As the movie went on, it was clear Skye really was trying to be a better person, she was trying to put the bad self behind her, but it was always there and it showed up in one reflection after another.
Cast
Directed and written by Parker Finn, Smile 2 follows up 2022’s Smile, with Naomi Scott starring as a singer who is put through hell while on tour.
