In the first “Smile” film, the characters are affected by a “virus” that passes from person to person, which is kept alive by psychological trauma. It makes the infected person believe they are seeing someone they know or see things that are not real and convinces the person who is currently affected to take their own life. To pass this virus to another person, someone who is not affected has to watch the affected person take their own life. To add to that horrifying concept, the infected person develops a huge smile on their face, right before violently executing themselves.

In “Smile 2” Noami Scott stars as a famous pop star, Skye Riley. Skye gets infected by the virus from one of her old high school friends, Lewis (Lukas Gage). As she arrives at Lewis' apartment he is already acting strange, brandishing a sword and threatening Riley, believing she is a hallucination. After some time when Lewis is hidden in his room, he suddenly appears in the living room again and creepily smiles at Skye, then takes his life with a weight plate as he repeatedly hits himself in the head with it. In that moment, the psychological trauma virus gets passed on to Skye. 

Skye begins to start seeing people smile at her who are not real. These hallucinations tend to be people she has met before or friends and family members. In the film, some people who creepily smile at her would be fans that she previously met, an old best friend, an ex-boyfriend, her manager, and her mother. Her hallucinations often involve personal fears that she has in her life, like her mom controlling her career, or a stalker fan breaking into her apartment.

Skye gets texts throughout the film from a random number. After experiencing severe hallucinations, Skye meets up with the man behind the number named Morris (Peter Jacobson). He tells her that he is aware she is infected with the virus and knows how to get rid of it but that it is a risky procedure. Skye doesn’t take Morris too seriously and goes about her life.

As the hallucinations keep getting worse, Skye ends up in a recovery center from all the injuries she caused herself while hallucinating. Sitting in the room, she decides to do whatever it takes to get rid of the virus. She texts Morris and he sends her an address to perform the procedure. As she sits on the procedure bed, Morris says he forgot something needed for the procedure but fails to return. Fans are speculating that Morris was not a real character and it was all a hallucination. 

The end of the film takes place with Skye on stage performing at the first show of her highly anticipated tour. When she is in the middle of performing, she sees a clone of herself on stage in front of her. A monster crawls out of her clone body and approaches Skye and crawls down her throat. As the whole crowd is watching, it appears that she is having a seizure on stage. The crowd can not see the monster, nor can they see what Skye sees. Her team rushes over to help Skye but before they approach her, she stands up and creepily smiles at the crowd. As she is smiling at the crowd she proceeds to take her life with her microphone. The scene only shows her fans looking at her with fear. Following the theme of the two films, it is assumed that everyone in the crowd is affected by the virus, spreading it to thousands of people. 

“Smile 2”  plays mind games with the viewers, since the horror aspects of the story are all based on hallucinations. There are many scary and dramatic scenes that would have viewers on the edge of their seats, only to find out the whole scene was a hallucination, like the storyline of Morris. 

Director Parker Finn creatively placed the jumpscares and gruesome scenes throughout the movie. Film critic Katie Walsh says on the movie review website Rotten Tomatoes, “Finn supplies bigger, even more effective jump-scares than the last time, which will keep the popcorn flying. The sound design booms and rattles, the delusions are even more elaborate and the body horror is even bloodier and more disturbing.” 

Another movie critic, Amy Nicholson, said, “This is the rare case of a horror sequel that is better than the original.”

“Smile 2” has a total of 4.2 out of 5 stars on Rotten Tomatoes. Fans have wondered if there will be a “Smile 3”, but no official announcement of a third film has been made. With a budget of $28 million, “Smile 2” has made over $109 million globally, making it a huge box-office success. With a profit of over $80 million, a third film is likely on the horizon.