Okay.
I need everybody to understand something before we begin.
By the last 30 minutes of Smile 2, I had officially stopped trusting everybody.
Skye?
Maybe.
Her mama?
Questionable.
Gemma?
Absolutely not.
Morris?
Sir, where did you come from?
A random lamp sitting in the corner?
I’m watching that too.
Because Smile 2 spends its finale showing us one reality after another, only to eventually reveal that poor Skye Riley hasn’t been running the show for quite some time.
And that final concert?
Oh, the Smile Entity had PLANS.
First, How Did Skye Get the Curse?
Skye becomes infected after witnessing Lewis die.
The curse works by forcing its current victim to die traumatically in front of another person.
That witness becomes the next host.
So once Lewis dies in front of Skye, congratulations:
She has officially subscribed to the worst membership program imaginable.
No cancellation button.
No customer service.
Just smiling people standing in dark corners.
Who Is Morris?
Morris is an ER nurse who contacts Skye because he knows about the Smile Entity.
His brother was one of its victims, and Morris has been tracking the curse.
He believes the Entity behaves like a parasite that needs a living host.
So he comes up with a theory:
If Skye can temporarily stop her heart while completely alone, the Entity might die with her.
Then Morris can resuscitate her.
Is this medically questionable?
Absolutely.
But compared to being stalked by a demon wearing everybody’s face?
I’m listening.
The important thing is that Skye’s first meeting with Morris may have been real.
The movie never definitively tells us otherwise.
It’s their later reunion and the freezer plan where things become very suspicious.
Was Gemma Ever Really With Skye?
No.
And this one is RUDE.
Skye believes she reconnects with her estranged best friend Gemma.
Gemma comes over.
They talk.
She stays with Skye.
She seems like one of the only people Skye can actually trust.
Except eventually Skye receives a phone call from the real Gemma.
And Gemma makes it clear they never reconciled.
Meaning the Gemma we’ve been watching?
Smile Entity with a wig on.
The Entity created an illusion using somebody Skye desperately wanted comfort and forgiveness from.
So when fake Gemma is sitting beside Skye in the car while real Gemma is calling?
Baby, I would have driven directly through the guardrail myself.
Did Skye Really Kill Her Mother?
No.
Thank goodness, because for a minute there I was sitting up like:
SKYE. MA’AM.
Skye wakes at a wellness facility with her mother, Elizabeth.
They argue.
Then Elizabeth suddenly develops that horrible smile, smashes a mirror and appears to kill herself.
Only Skye realizes that somehow she is holding the glass.
It looks like Skye murdered her own mother.
She panics and escapes.
But later, when Skye appears at the concert, Elizabeth is alive and sitting in the audience.
So that entire sequence was part of the Entity’s manipulation.
Elizabeth never died.
Skye never escaped after killing her.
The demon had already taken such deep control of Skye’s perception that she couldn’t tell imagination from reality anymore.
And neither could we.
Rude again.
Did Skye Really Meet Morris at the Pizza Hut?
Here’s where the movie gets particularly nasty.
Skye believes she escapes and reaches Morris at an abandoned Pizza Hut.
And first of all, imagine finding the possible solution to an ancient supernatural curse and the meeting place is:
Closed Pizza Hut.
Not a hospital.
Not a research facility.
Pizza Hut.
Fine.
Morris has prepared the walk-in freezer because cooling Skye’s body would theoretically give him more time to restart her heart without causing permanent brain damage.
The plan is to stop Skye’s heart.
Kill the Entity.
Bring Skye back.
For approximately three minutes, I thought:
Wait. This might actually work.
Which obviously means it was never going to work.
Was the Freezer Scene Real?
Almost certainly not.
Morris steps away.
Then Skye is confronted by the Entity.
Skye fights back and appears to inject herself with the drug meant to stop her heart.
For one brief glorious moment, she thinks:
I got you.
And the Entity basically says:
Girl.
No.
It reveals that Skye isn’t in control.
Then everything changes.
The freezer disappears.
The Pizza Hut disappears.
The entire escape disappears.
And suddenly Skye is standing backstage at her concert.
That’s when we realize the Entity has been controlling her reality for far longer than we understood.
So How Long Was Skye Hallucinating?
This is deliberately murky.
But the movie gives us a major clue during the terrifying apartment sequence with Skye’s backup dancers.
They swarm her.
Pin her down.
And something forces its way into her mouth.
After that moment, Skye’s grip on reality becomes almost nonexistent.
The wellness center escape, her mother’s apparent death, the car ride with fake Gemma and the final attempt with Morris all appear to be part of an extended illusion.
Basically, Skye thought she was fighting for her life.
Meanwhile, in reality, everyone around her was probably getting her dressed for the concert.
Which is HORRIFYING.
Imagine believing you’re escaping a demon while somebody is somewhere like:
Okay girl, arms up, we need to get this sequined bodysuit on.
Why Does Skye End Up on Stage?
Because that was the Entity’s endgame.
Skye Riley isn’t an ordinary victim.
She’s an international superstar.
Thousands of fans are gathered in one arena to watch her.
Phones are out.
People are recording.
Possibly livestreaming.
The Entity couldn’t have asked for a better setup.
Skye looks into the crowd and sees her very-much-alive mother.
That’s when she realizes just how completely she has been fooled.
Then the Entity appears in its monstrous form and takes full control.
Skye’s fate is sealed.
Why Does Skye Die in Front of the Audience?
Because that’s how the curse spreads.
The Entity needs someone to witness its host’s traumatic death.
The first movie usually showed this happening between one victim and one witness.
But Skye dies onstage in front of thousands of people.
And Parker Finn has specifically talked about the horrifying possibility created by that setup.
Did the Entity just infect one person?
Several people?
Everybody who witnessed it?
What about people filming?
What about livestream viewers?
The movie doesn’t give us a firm answer.
And THAT is what makes the ending so nasty.
The curse may have just gone from a chain…
to an outbreak.
The Celebrity Part Makes the Ending Even Darker
Skye spends the entire movie surrounded by people.
Managers.
Assistants.
Dancers.
Fans.
Her mother.
Industry people.
And yet she’s incredibly isolated.
Everybody needs something from Skye Riley.
Smile.
Perform.
Promote.
Dance.
Sell tickets.
Get back onstage.
Even while she’s mentally collapsing.
Then she finally breaks completely.
And where does it happen?
Onstage.
In front of an audience.
Finn has said that part of the ending was meant to turn the audience’s gaze back on itself.
We’re watching people watch Skye fall apart.
Her suffering becomes the final performance.
That is DARK.
What Does the Smile 2 Ending Mean?
To me, Smile 2 is about trauma, control and the pressure to keep performing when you’re barely holding yourself together.
Skye keeps saying she wants control of her life.
But before the Entity even arrives, she doesn’t really have much.
Her career controls her schedule.
Her public image controls her behavior.
Her past controls her guilt.
Her addiction history follows her everywhere.
Then the Entity comes along and takes away the last thing she has:
Her ability to trust her own mind.
By the end, Skye doesn’t even get to choose where she dies.
The Entity puts her exactly where everyone has always wanted her:
Onstage.
Performing.
My Take
That ending was MEAN.
Because I genuinely thought Morris might have figured something out.
I was over here mentally preparing to congratulate this man and his Pizza Hut medical facility.
Meanwhile the Smile Entity was probably watching me like:
Look at her believing stuff.
What makes the ending work is that it doesn’t just fool Skye.
It fools us too.
We experience her confusion right along with her until that stage opens up and suddenly everything makes sense.
Skye never escaped.
She never regained control.
And the Entity may have just found itself thousands of new victims.
Now THAT is how you end a horror sequel.
Horror Tea Rating: ☕☕☕☕½
4½ out of 5 Tea Cups.
Half a cup deducted because after that ending, I don’t trust anybody who smiles at me for longer than three seconds.
Please relax your face.