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Smile 2 Movie Review
The saying “a smile is worth a thousand words” doesn’t even begin to describe the horror in Parker Finn’s sequel to his 2022 hit Smile. Smile 2 takes place 6 days after where the last film left us and we’re following the lone survivor of the Smile entity, Joel (Kyle Gallner). Since he has a very limited amount of time before the entity takes over his body and makes him kill himself, he tries to murder a criminal in front of another so the curse can be lifted. Of course it doesn’t go as planned and the lone person in the room, Lewis (Lukas Gage), witnessed the horrific events that follow. Cut to Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), a pop sensation that recently fell from grace is on the rise once more on a new tour that is bound to bring her back to the limelight. As she’s struggling with her own demons, she makes a call to her old friend Lewis to score some pain killers. Yet, wouldn’t you know it? Lewis has that pesky Smile entity looming around and one thing leads to another, Sky is now next on the list. With inventive scares and horrific imagery, Finn’s direction is in high gear with this sequel. As we follow Skye struggling with the kickoff of the tour and her mother (Rosemarie Dewitt) breathing down her neck, the Smile entity almost takes delight in torturing someone who has so many eyes on her at all times. Listen as Wright, Alan, Ben, and Nathan discuss the film and wonder if this horror sequel holds a candle to the original or stands tall and smiles as it moves forward.
DIRECTED BY: Parker Finn
STARRING: Naomi Scott, Rosemarie DeWitt, Kyle Gallner, Lukas Gage, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Peter Jacobson, Raúl Castillo, Dylan Gelula, Ray Nicholson, Drew Barrymore
YOUR REVIEWERS
Wright Sulek (Screener Squad, Digital Noise, Highly Suspect Reviews, Trash in the Can, Audio Editor)
Wright hails from the northern suburbs of Dallas, Texas. His passion for filmmaking brought him to Austin to study and make movies. Since then he’s had his hand in acting, writing, and directing his own short films with numerous like-minded film geeks he’s met along his journey. His newest interest has brought him into the podcasting world. He co-hosted a few different movie related podcasts such as ‘And Now This’ and ‘The Match Cut’. He currently co-hosts with longtime friend, Eric Samaniego, where they talk shop about the grimiest, trashiest, lost gems of movies on their show, ‘Trash in the Can’. Wright also guests and hosts reviews on Screener Squad and Highly Suspect Reviews as well as co-hosts Digital Noise with Chris Cox.
Nathan Flynn (Screener Squad, Highly Suspect Reviews)
A recent transplant to Austin originally hailing from the wretched hive of scum and villainy that is the Midwest, Nathan Flynn has been a movie super freak since he saw “An American Werewolf in London” way too young and grew up worshipping the James Bond franchise and all things related to Cold War-era spycraft. When he’s not watching movies and being a constant defender of the Tron franchise, he can be found practicing his second biggest love: cooking (having been a chef for 10+ years) and hitting his head up against a desk to write screenplays that nobody reads. He also spearheads his own podcast on the Mission Impossible franchise titled “Mission: Impodible”. He can be found rarely posting on his personal twitter.
Ben Glasthal (Highly Suspect Review, Screener Squad, Breakfast Pub, Unstabletop Gamers, Video and Audio Editor)
Born in Boston, then ending up in Dallas, Texas in the early 2000s, Ben has always had a passion for film. He started in film school not long after where he launched MovieReelizations.com where he still writes reviews to this day. He’s since moved to Austin where he has been also hopping on podcasts and both editing and shooting videos for One of Us. A fan of films from almost all genres, and many that predate him more than makes sense, he is anything if not eclectic in what he’s watching at any point. For the rest of his free time, he can be found biking, drinking craft beer, being an amateur photographer, and playing video games by himself or on Twitch. He’s best found on Instagram or Twitter as @MovieReelBen.
Alan Galinsky (Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad, Deliberations of Doom)
Born and raised in Texas, Alan Galinsky is a lifetime movie fan. As a youth, he would rent multiple movies every weekend and go to the theater for the latest releases, and that pace has remained steady. When Alan isn’t watching movies, you can find him talking about movies. When he’s not talking about movies, you can find him playing music in the band Delicate Boys.
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