Slasher thrills meet celebrity culture in Smile 2

The story: This standalone sequel, set some days after the events of Smile (2022), finds pop star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) preparing for a major tour, her first after a car crash that killed her friend and nearly ended her life.

- John Lui

SMILE 2 (M18) 127 minutes, now showing ★★★★

Her mother-manager Elizabeth (Rosemarie DeWitt) insists she get her career in high gear as quickly as possible. Burying her post-crash emotional and physical pain comes at a price: Skye sees people around her sporting an identical menacing grin.

The subject of psychological trauma can be explored on film in several ways.

Most of the time, the setting is a family drama in which unresolved pain emerges as parental neglect or drug abuse.

These days, the genre of horror is the preferred medium to explore the effects of grief or depression, as seen in The Babadook (2014) or Hereditary (2018).