Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Smile 2 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 24, 2025

2022's Smile caught the attention of moviegoers and critics alike with a film that may not have reinvented the Horror genre but that certainly brought a new angle to it, while at the same time introducing Writer and Director Parker Finn to the world, putting him on the map as one of the best up and coming genre filmmakers in the world. He returns to the franchise with Smile 2, a film that is in every way the superior of the original, offering a more compelling story, a tighter exploration of the terror that titles the movie, better characterization, and superior filmmaking. It's in every a way a movie that show a meteoric rise for the young filmmaker while also promising the potential for this to become an ongoing franchise that might very well propel it into the upper echelon of Horror icons in the coming years.

Note that some spoilers for the first film appear below

The film begins six days following the events of the first film. While his plan doesn’t go quite as planned, Joel (Kyle Gallner) successfully passes on the curse to the unwitting junkie Lewis (Lukas Gage). Meanwhile, Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) is a Pop music sensation who is looking for a “second chance” in life after coming clean and sober following a long struggle with drugs and alcohol that came about as a result of her boyfriend's tragic death in a car accident. She’s also struggling with debilitating back pain as a result of that same accident, which she has to control with black market drugs. For those drugs, she turns to her old friend, Lewis, the very same one who has inherited the curse. Lewis successfully (and grotesquely) passes the cruse onto Skye, who must deal with internal trauma and external pain as she attempts to piece her life and career back together with the deadly curse clouding her mind, body, and soul.

Smile 2 will best reward those who come into it fresh off the first film, or at least very familiar with its characters and plot lines. It resolves quite a number of unanswered questions while also serving as a continuation of the overreaching narrative. At the same time, it builds its own identity with enough character and self-contained story and explanation to service new viewers or those who have forgotten the original. The story blends intense psychological terror that manifests through frequent unease, doubt, and mental deterioration, often met with tangible physical harm and grotesque bodily destruction. In essence, then, the film manages to walk that line between servicing both ends of the Horror movie camp, delivering up the gory goods (often to horrific extremes) while also constructing one of the darkest, deepest, and most disturbing psychologically attuned Horror films of recent years, and arguably decades.

While Smile 2 really finds its (and the franchise's) stride in the narrative and the subsequent psychological unease that is a result, it also comes together thanks to Finn's remarkable work as director. The filmmaker understands the medium quite well, evident right out of the gate with a frenetic and fabulously well made opening segment that sets a grim and harsh tone for the film. Finn and Cinematographer Charlie Sarroff make wonderful use of angles, lighting, and set pieces that are implemented in such a way as to pull the audience more deeply into the characters' disturbed psychology while also serving as a means to elevating the film from a purely technical perspective as well, sure to satisfy hardcore cinephiles who will see and appreciate the technical artistry and mastery at work. What's more, Naomi Scott is wonderful as Skye, the Pop singer whose already frail psyche and worn physical body are tormented all the more by the coming of the curse. As it manifests itself in ways that hinder and hamper her efforts at returning to the spotlight, she crumbles in self destructive ways that further spiral her towards internal oblivion with the promise of external destruction. Scott delivers a stellar performance that manifests the psychology with tangible terror and unease that yield a performance that should go down as one of Horror's finest.

Smile 2 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The included screenshots are sourced from the UHD disc output at 1080p. They are not representative of the UHD/Dolby Vision image you will see on your screen.

It's all grins with Paramount's 2160p/Dolby Vision UHD release of Smile 2. The digitally shot film sports a native 4K DI and delivers an exceptionally crisp and efficient image that captures all sorts of details with incredible depth and ease. While maybe not the most purely visually robust eye candy sort of movie on the market, there is no mistaking that the elements look very good, right down to fine makeup details on Skye's face as she prepares to perform on stage in various scenes, for example. The finest applied makeup and adornments are astonishingly crisp and tangible. Costumes are likewise as dense as the 4K resolution allows. The film also features a number of practical gore effects, and the high resolution allows viewers to soak in every last morsel of the grisly content, right down to sinews and torn flesh. The Dolby Vision color grading delivers bold and satisfying hues, finding remarkable richness to top dollar clothes, lipsticks and other makeup, and again blood and gore. Red is particularly vivid and jumps off the screen as the horrific highlight in the Dolby Vision range. While balance is spectacular and black levels are first class. Noise is kept to a bare minimum and I did not notice any other troubling source or encode issues.

Paramount has also included a Blu-ray, but there is no separate Blu-ray release. The 1080p image also delivers an excellent picture, one that is not lagging too far behind the UHD, but it obviously can't keep up for overall clarity or color excellence. Still, it's a perfectly viable option for those who have yet to make the jump to UHD.

Smile 2 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Smile 2's Dolby Atmos soundtrack is everything is needs to be, and then some. Whether intense crashes and bangs and gunshots in the opening moments or high energy Pop numbers, there's frequent opportunity here for the track to explode with impactful sonic content. The track handles each and every one of these elements with refinement and power alike, a perfect blend of detail and depth that keeps the audience thrilled from start to finish. Spacing is wide along the front and surround envelopment is frequent, full, and flattering to every shot, scene, and sequence. Overhead channels may not offer a bountiful array of discrete content, but they do help in saturating the stage with impressive immersion to fully draw the listener into the most engaging moments, especially and again those Pop numbers. Music is indeed very rich, clear, and well spaced. Light ambient effects are also perfectly integrated. Dialogue is clear, crisp, and centered for the duration.

Smile 2 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This UHD release of Smile 2 contains a fairly lengthy array of bonus content. A digital copy code is also included with purchase.

• Audio Commentary: Director Parker Finn discusses the film.
• Ear to Ear (1080p, 5:17): Discussing franchise origins, the first film's success, and building the sequel from the main character up.
• The Rise and Fall of Skye Riley (1080p, 5:33): Building the main character.
• Behind the Music (1080p, 4:44): Writing and performing the music for a fictional Pop icon.
• A New Smile (1080p, 5:37): Opening the new film with Joel, making the intense opening sequence, and exploring how it sets the Smile 2 story in motion.
• Smiler: A New Monster (1080p, 5:44): Exploring one of the film's big, and gruesome, final reveals.
• Turn That Frown Upside Down (1080p, 5:25): Making Lewis' horrific death scene.
• Show Me Your Teeth (1080p, 5:11): Looking at the role of Paul in the film and making his key scene.
• Deleted and Extended Scenes (1080p): Included are Grieved You - Extended (1:48), Go Again - Extended (2:19), and I Need Some Air - Deleted (2:46).

Smile 2 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Smile 2 should leave fans of the original film, and genre fans in general, well, smiling at what Writer/Director Parker Finn has done here. The film is bigger and better than the first while also building upon the foundational principles that were set in the first film. This has "larger franchise" written all over it, which hopefully means more Smile movies with Parker Finn at the helm, but somehow I see this shifting more to the DTV market in the coming years after the third or fourth entry as Finn explores new avenues of storytelling and filmmaking. But either way, I think the Smile movies are here to stay for some time. Paramount's UHD release of Smile 2 delivers excellent video and audio and a nice array of bonus material in support. Recommended to genre fans.