It looks like Halloween has come early as the highly anticipated horror sequel Smile 2 has finally hit the big screen. That's right, the Smile monster is back again spreading its virus of contagious killer smiles across the nation,

The sequel to one of 2022's breakout horror hits manages to shake off its gimmick and mine the nightmarish depths of pop stardom, the pressures of public performance and smiling through the pain when there's an entire industry machine depending on your talent.

Expanding lore is a key element in horror sequels, and it’s something that I pondered heavily going into my screening of writer/director Parker Finn’s Smile 2. Revisiting the original in the days before,

The world is on fire. Innocent people are dying. Hurricanes are ripping away homes. Fascism looms large. Parker Finn's "Smile" movies don't tackle our global anxieties directly but they do understand that seeing someone happy in the early 21st century is deeply disturbing.

"Smile 2" is more bonkers than the first film, and it even has something interesting to say through those gritted-teeth grins.

"Smile 2" is a flash-cut horror parable, but the story it's telling is that pop fame makes you crazy. Though the movie is hardly subtle, Parker Finn has become a clever enough filmmaker to make reality feel like a hallucination and hallucinations feel like reality.

A pop star is put through an unholy nightmare that will make audiences go wild. No, Lady Gaga is not involved.