Editor's Note: This article contains spoilers for Smile 2.

Summary

Smile 2 offers humor alongside horror, striking a balance that keeps the audience on edge & entertained.
Intentional comic relief provided by characters like Gemma & Joshua adds laughter amid the mayhem.
Despite some unintentionally goofy moments, Smile 2 succeeds in delivering the necessary tension for a great horror film.

The apparent goal of Smile 2 is to scare the pants off of everyone who goes to see the film. One little-known fact is that horror movies are best when the tension isn't non-stop. There have to be a few scenes where the audience can let its guard down. Then, as Parker Finn is quite talented at doing, the director can pull the rug out from under the people just as they're relaxing. It makes the jump scares that much better. In essence, the laughter and the tension are a one-two punch.

Smile 2 really is looking like one of the next great horror franchises. The movie manages to offer everything a good movie in this genre wants to offer. There are moments when audience members will watch through their fingers because what's on screen is either too scary to too gross. People sitting safely in their seats will jump, and not just because there's suddenly a very loud sound that startles them. People are going to Smile 2 in droves, but it's also getting great reviews. And one of the reasons why it's getting such good reviews is that its director has figured out the balance between horror and humor.

Skye Riley And Her Ride Or Die Friend In Smile 2

One of the reasons that Smile 2 can bring humor alongside the horror is that some characters are written with the intent with being stereotypical. It's intentional for several reasons but part of the deal is that the characters are only seen through the lens of Skye's mind. That's especially the case when Gemma comes into the picture.

Spoilers for Smile 2 are below.

When Gemma is introduced into the story, the audience has already been told that she and Skye were terrific friends before Skye started to spiral on drugs and alcohol and got into her accident. Early on in the film, Skye's mom mentions reaching out to Gemma in order to have someone on her side who can balance her out. Eventually, she does just that and Gemma becomes her friend again.

Smile 2
Starring	Naomi Scott, Rosemarie DeWitt, Lukas Gage, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Peter Jacobson, Raúl Castillo, Dylan Gelula, Ray Nicholson and Kyle Gallner
Written By	Parker Finn
Directed By	Parker Finn

This all leads to the best exchange in the entire movie. It's after things have spiraled out of control in a big way for Skye, and she's escaping from the wellness center or whatever kind of facility she's been staying in following a rather massive meltdown. The escape comes because she's just killer her mother using pieces of her room's mirror and is covered in blood. This detail is important because it's the kind of thing most people would be repulsed by, or at least would hesitate or turn down their friend who is carrying a gun, and appears to be in, or caused some serious trouble.

Skye starts to get into a car that she's stealing and Gemma jumps in the driver's side. Skye then tells Gemma that she needs to stay behind and stay out of the trouble that is following the pop star. And her friend delivers the line "I'm your ride or die b****" in a perfect vocal fry delivery. It's not the line itself so much as its the expected behavior of a hanger on/friend of a famous pop star and the ridiculousness of the situation that make this a humorous moment just as the nonsense is really ramping up in Smile 2.

For the rest of the movie, the intentional comic relief is offered up by Joshua, Skye's personal assistant who is the perfect sycophantic character whose perfection stems from being willing to do anything and everything for Skye. A discussion between the two not long before Skye and Joshua have a discussion over just what kind of drink she needs, with that discussion going on while she's trying to keep him out of the room with her murdered mother.

The Unintentional Humor of Smile 2

There are other moments in Smile 2 where it's not clear if the humor is intentional or simply so ridiculous that the audience feels like it has to laugh. There the woman who is flung onto a table after she grabs Skye to try and comfort her as she is melting down while giving a speech. There's there little girl with the smile that is supposed to be creepy.

Finally, there is a scene that, if it wasn't supposed to be mostly funny, then Parker Finn made one big miscalculation. In Skye's apartment, several smiling people keep - for lack of a better word - dancing at her down the hallway. It looks like a choreographed improv group thought something would look really cool. It does not. It's rather goofy looking and it's one of those things that audiences are having a tough time not laughing at.

The key for Smile 2 tough is, even if some of the scenes don't hit the way they're supposed to, they still do the job. They still get those watching the film to drop their guard and relax. And then the rug is pulled out from under them and the tension comes flooding back. Even if some of the scenes weren't meant to be taken the way they are, it still adds to a horror film that has all the best elements of the greats.

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