I gave myself a few days to reflect before I decided to drop some thoughts on Smile 2...but my enthusiasm for it hasn't changed. I really think it's a GREAT horror movie that's built for the theatrical experience, particularly in one of those Dolby Digital surround sound rooms where the score can really immerse and hit you. It's probably gonna crack my top-5 favorite horrors of the year, but more importantly, it was the best time I've had at the theater all year.
The Smile movies do something that I wish more horror films would, which is to play with audience anticipation. Everyone can spot a jump scare set up, but the Smile movies just capitalize on that. They play with timing so that even when you expect a scare, you're locked in the moment a little longer than you'd expect. Some of Smiles "jumps" will have you staring at the entity and just waiting for it to move. Combined with the score, it's incredibly effective, and I know because the audience around me was losing it!
Also, one of the jump scares in this film got me to jump. That happens maybe once or twice a year in a good year. Anyway, that's all "theater" focused stuff...let's do a bit of movie talk:
The good:
The best thing about this movie is that it takes the strengths of the original and expands on them. We get a protagonist with trauma in their past that they've padded over rather than overcome. The entity uses that trauma to break them and their thin veil of "control" falls apart. This time there's a bigger audience, a darker trauma, and more aggressive illusions.
The other strengths of Smile are more aesthetic. The lead actresses have to do a LOT of work to slowly slip into madness, and I dare say that Naomi Scott managed to surpass Sosie Bacon's incredible work from the first movie. This is some convincing ish right here:
The score of Smile 1 was brilliant, and that carries over into this sequel with fantastic sounds, music, and timing for the drops.
Combine all of that and the key for Smile becomes Atmosphere. This is a movie that can put you in a dark hallway or bright lights; leave you alone in a small room or surrounded by a huge group of people; and you STILL feel trapped whenever the entity comes after the MC. It's relentless!
The bad:
Though Smile 2 plays into the series strengths, that means it doesn't reinvent the wheel. It's practically a paint by numbers copy of Sosie Bacon's journey in part one. There aren't any big pivots, beyond one subplot that I'll revisit in the next section. But otherwise, it's the same mystery as part one without any new revelations. The entity's illusions are bigger and more invasive, but they're the same as last time.
This didn't hurt much because our new protagonist was so different from Sosie Bacon in the first one. But a third movie is going to have to switch things up before the scares feel recycled, and the plot beats become too predictable. So, the bad isn't so bad this time...but could get annoying without some innovation to the formula going forward.
Also, some bits went too far into comedy. I LIKE the emotions swinging from light to heavy in a lot of parts, but some stuff made me laugh. Like this image wasn't scary to me:
The Ugly:
I'm all for ambiguity in horror, but I like when the ambiguity is grounded by rules we can apply and follow. The original Smile walked that line well in terms of the illusions that Sosie Bacon faced. But this sequel never draws clear lines between what is an entity illusion and what was real.
I walked out of the theater and talked with three friends about what we'd just watched, and we each had completely different interpretations of what was real and what wasn't. We had to exchange notes to come to some firm conclusions, and we still weren't sure about parts...one of the friends I went with, was watching it for the second time and still wasn't certain about some aspects of the plot!
The problem with being uncertain about what was real is that a bunch of important events in the movie feel worthless in retrospect.
So she didn't stab her mother? Was the male nurse real and when did interactions with him shift to the entity if he was real at any points? Why did the entity wait until now to try and infect more than one person at once? How did Crowbar man's line of deaths stop?
Anyway, this movie leaves more questions than answers like a new episode of From or Lost. From a pure "scares" POV, it's been fantastic as a film series. But I think the plot could fall apart without big changes to the formula.
Conclusion:
Plot over-analysis aside, this joint slaps. It's a horror movie that's actually made for you to experience in a theater, with an audience, and fully immersed. I really enjoyed it. I'm just hoping it doesn't become too repetitive going forward....Insidious, The Conjuring, even the Scream trilogies seemed to go off track by their third films. So, I'm primed to be skeptical here.
Still...this is a firm 8 out of 10 for me. There's so much clever ish I could talk about from camera pans to scare setups, and from dialogue cues to visual tricks. I'm a fan of the Smile series so far.
Horror thread's 31 days of Halloween List - Day 22 - J.D.'s Revenge
Murdered on Bourbon Street in 1942 New Orleans, a gangster returns from the dead 34 years later possessing the body of a young, black law student in his quest for revenge.
J.D.'s a straight up menace! This is blaxploitation horror to the max, J.D. popping out the switchblade on a man who caught his wife cheating has been a meme for years. Lou Gossett Jr shows up and plays the hell out of his part, and the movie just oozes that mid-70's swag. We end up with one of the most unique possession movies of all time, and I'm once again asking for the studios that spend millions remaking and requeling the same handful of Horror Movies to expand to stuff like this...just keep Lee Daniels away.
The List:
1. Triangle (Prime)
2. The Loved Ones (Paramount+)
3. Salem's Lot 2024 (Max)
4. Be My Cat: A Film for Anne (Tubi)
5. VHS Beyond (Shudder)
6. *Choose your own* - Haunt (2019)
7. Don't Go in the House (Tubi, Youtube)
8. Cure (Internet Archive)
9. Masque of the Red Death(Pluto/Apple TV+)
10. The Eyes of My Mother (Max)
11. Henry Portait of a Serial Killer (Peacock)
12. Curse of Chucky (Netflix)
13. *Choose your own*
14. Junk (2000) (Youtube)
15. Detention (2011) (Tubi)
16. Sleepaway Camp (Peacock)
17. The Skeleton Key(Peacock/Apple TV+)
18. The Witch (Max)
19. Brain Damage 1988 (Tubi)
20. *Choose your own* Thesis 1996
21. Audition (Tubi)
22. J. D.'s Revenge(Tubi/Brown Sugar/Prime)
23. Dead Silence (Tubi)
24. Sinister (Max)
25. World War Z (Paramount Plus)
26. The Burbs (Youtube)
27. *Choose your own*
28. 28 Days Later
29. Black Christmas (Tubi)
30. The Shining(MAX/Apple TV+)
31. John Carpenter's Halloween
Next up, the James Wan and Leigh Wannell collab that everyone forgets about. Anyone who throws this on, I'll immediately ask to keep an eye out for all the visual cues and characteristics that would become staples of Wan's future work. As a matter of fact, one character basically leaps from this movie right into Saw 2.
Next up, the James Wan and Leigh Wannell collab that everyone forgets about. Anyone who throws this on, I'll immediately ask to keep an eye out for all the visual cues and characteristics that would become staples of Wan's future work. As a matter of fact, one character basically leaps from this movie right into Saw 2.
100% co-sign on that one. If I were to do an auteur study on Wan, I'd start with Dead Silence because so much of it bleeds into the rest of his work. Mary Shaw and the tough cop Wahlberg bro are blatant. Plus, I think the clown coming out of the dark is Jigsaw coded as hell.
one of the best Blaxploitation revenge flicks of the entire era, IMHO, with a horror twist.
that slow turn from isaac to JD is engaging and suspenseful and the way Glynn turman can turn the possession on and off is crazy
even the side character's are interesting, but they stayed giving that nikka chances after he kept fukiing up though
Plus,
My nikka JD doesn't get his full ghostly possessed powers until that perm is laid
This movie was super fun. I wasn't sure the horror elements would be there but I'm glad they were.
When he came out with the perm
When the husband came home and immediately said you fukking someone else
I've never seen the switchblade meme but I've seen this before as a reaction meme.
I also liked that we got another movie set in New Orleans. I agree Louis Gossett Jr. did a great job. The most accurate part was that the lightskin preacher's daughter with green eyes was fast as fukk.
I do wish they'd remake this movie. There's some fukkery that I know modern audiences would enjoy. You said Lee Daniels, but I'm adding Tyler Perry to that list too. I know there's some more possession turned slasher movies that came after this movie but I can't think of any.
I don't know if they should still keep the humor or not, but I think it'd be hilarious if a breh walks into the club and picks up a gen z girl wearing something like this
It's still early so I'm going to throw on Bones 2001. I haven't seen that movie in a looooong time.
'The Conjuring 2.' First let me say, I love Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as a team. Their chemistry is tremendous and both are underrated actors in my view. This entry into the series takes us into the famous Enfield case and it's another one filled to the brim with jump scares. I don't think it quite hits like 'The Conjuring' because I preferred the supporting cast and the overall story in that one but this is still a lot of fun for any paranormal fan. It also introduces us to more characters that will appear in later films/spin offs. This series is so profitable for Warner Bros. that they'll probably never stop making them.
I really wanted to see Smile 2 today but I was super busy. Had to wait around for geek squad to fix my tv, run to the dmv to replace my license, and had to pick my son up from school. Finally got home and I was exhausted
Horror thread's 31 days of Halloween List - Day 23 - Dead Silence
After his wife meets a grisly end, Jamie Ashen returns to his haunted hometown of Ravens Fair to find answers. His investigation leads him to the ghost of a ventriloquist named Mary Shaw who seems to have ties to his entire family tree
I've mentioned this a few times, but watching Dead Silence is like being on a treasure hunt for all of James Wan's auteur tropes and traits. But it's also got flaws he improved on as he went along. So the plot is half-baked, the scares and kills don't quite follow through and rely on hard cut aways too often, and there's not much variance in the setting or visuals. It's like watching a really promising rookie, but knowing he'll develop into a hall of famer in a few seasons.
The crazy part is that I think this is the most creative story Wan pumped out until Malignant, ages later. It's an original story instead of leaning into real stories like in the Conjuring series; and Mary Shaw's puppets feel fresh and new compared to Insidious which sequeled itself out of any originality I used to feel. The puppets are genuinely pretty creepy too. This movie feels like the puppet Goosebumps story got aged up for an older audience.
Also, shout out to Detective Lipton played by Donnie Wahlberg. He HAD to be the basis for Donnie's character in Saw 2.
Anyway, I love revisiting this joint, especially after Wan drops anything new. I wish he'd take another stab at delivering this story with a bit more depth to the plot. The ventriloquist thing is ripe for setting up scares, and he has some great setups but I wish the kills weren't flash-kills.
The List:
1. Triangle (Prime)
2. The Loved Ones (Paramount+)
3. Salem's Lot 2024 (Max)
4. Be My Cat: A Film for Anne (Tubi)
5. VHS Beyond (Shudder)
6. *Choose your own* - Haunt (2019)
7. Don't Go in the House (Tubi, Youtube)
8. Cure (Internet Archive)
9. Masque of the Red Death(Pluto/Apple TV+)
10. The Eyes of My Mother (Max)
11. Henry Portait of a Serial Killer (Peacock)
12. Curse of Chucky (Netflix)
13. *Choose your own*
14. Junk (2000) (Youtube)
15. Detention (2011) (Tubi)
16. Sleepaway Camp (Peacock)
17. The Skeleton Key(Peacock/Apple TV+)
18. The Witch (Max)
19. Brain Damage 1988 (Tubi)
20. *Choose your own* Thesis 1996
21. Audition (Tubi)
22. J. D.'s Revenge(Tubi/Brown Sugar/Prime)
23. Dead Silence (Tubi)
24. Sinister (Max)
25. World War Z (Paramount Plus)
26. The Burbs (Youtube)
27. *Choose your own*
28. 28 Days Later
29. Black Christmas (Tubi)
30. The Shining(MAX/Apple TV+)
31. John Carpenter's Halloween
Next up is an absolute modern classic, and another movie that I put on the pedestal of all-time great Theater viewing experiences.
The movie does seem like Wan is trying to figure it out. A lot of horror movies around that time look very similar and are all supernatural mysteries. I thought the movie Mirrors with Kiefer Sutherland was like Dead Silence.
I caught the (Saw) Billy The Puppet easter egg. Since this was the only James Wan horror movie I haven't seen before I'll watch the other Mike Flanagan ones. The MF movies I haven't seen are Oculus, Hush, and Before I Wake. I also plan to rewatch Insidious sometime soon because I had sleep paralysis for the first time in about 10 years and that shyt sucks
The movie does seem like Wan is trying to figure it out. A lot of horror movies around that time look very similar and are all supernatural mysteries. I thought the movie Mirrors with Kiefer Sutherland was like Dead Silence.
I caught the (Saw) Billy The Puppet easter egg. Since this was the only James Wan horror movie I haven't seen before I'll watch the other Mike Flanagan ones. The MF movies I haven't seen are Oculus, Hush, and Before I Wake. I also plan to rewatch Insidious sometime soon because I had sleep paralysis for the first time in about 10 years and that shyt sucks
Oh man, you're in for a treat. Hush feels like a slept on gem because it wasn't on streaming services for a long while. Oculus...that shyt goes to some dark places. Hush is a bit lighter fare. Oculus is heavy. But both are good. I haven't seen Before I Wake either.
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Bucked eyes and everthing
