The lights begin to dim, and it is time for the movie to begin. An eerie feeling begins to settle in, knowing what is about to come.
The film starts six days after the first one, showing an action-packed opening filled with surprises. Unfortunately, the only character left alive in the previous movie, Joel, gets suddenly killed, and it is time for a new story to begin.
The new main character, Skye Riley, played by Naomi Scott, is a lively pop star who just started going on tour again after a tragic accident occurred just a year earlier. Scott plays the character of Skye with a passion that leaves you rooting for her the whole movie. Skye struggles with past drug addictions, only quitting after the accident.
She ends up contacting her past dealer for some pain medications, and while going to his house to get them, things start to go wrong.
Skye witnesses a brutal scene that ends up with her being infected with the “smile virus” right before her tour. We watch as Skye battles with hallucinations and maintaining her public image, all while she feels as if she is losing her mind.
The many scares left everyone in the theater hiding behind their hands, and surprisingly, this film is much more gory than the last. We are made to think that throughout the movie our lovable main character will defeat the virus and turn her life around. But towards the end, everything goes wrong, and reality finally begins to settle in.
With plot twists of Skye killing her own mother and never reconciling with an old friend, she gives up and decides to try and gain control once and for all. Skye goes to someone who earlier in the movie suggested he could help by killing her and restarting her heart, but as is typical, things go wrong and she has to do it herself.
Unfortunately, the pop star we rooted for is finally defeated by the smile parasite with a huge twist that leaves you questioning if any of what you just watched was real. This movie, unlike the way much of the internet believed would be bad, turned out to be shockingly good, leaving everyone in the theater on the edge of their seats.
