‘Smile 2’ and The Art of the Unlikable Protagonist
The sequel is a better horror movie and a better story because its hero is kind of a terrible person.
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One aspect of the Streaming Age that I enjoy for no good reason is the Surprise Factor: I hear about a film and think hmmn, that might be interesting, and then I forget all about it1. Months later, the film shows up on some random streamer and I experience a moment of childlike delight2. It’s like finding that extra gift under the tree that got shoved back behind some branches when you’re a kid. I forget all about basic economics and the fact that I sure am paying for this mediocre movie. It feels free, and I am stoked to be able to just press a button and watch it3.
This probably stems from my deprived 1970s/1980s childhood. We didn’t even get cable TV in my neighborhood until 19874! So my early development was marked by a lot of waiting for stuff. When something pops up and I can just watch it instantly, there’s some tiny part of me that’s super stoked about it.
Thus, when Smile 2 showed up on my TV, I was simultaneously delighted and excited beyond what the film deserved, honestly. The first film was okay—a fun horror premise and a well-put-together film—and the reviews of the sequel had been strong, so I figured I had worse ways to spend a few hours of my day5. And I was right! There were worse ways! Smile 2 is a better film than its predecessor, in part because it’s smart enough to know how to present that rarest of things: The unlikable protagonist6.
It’s Britney, Bitch
Smile 2 suffers from the same two weaknesses (at least in my opinion—your mileage may vary, of course) as the original: The undefeatable enemy, which kind of takes the fun out of everything, and the evil entity that can warp reality, which surgically removes tension from the story (again, IMHO). Smile 2 takes that cromulent premise—a spirit latches onto people, tortures them with hallucinations that slowly unravel their life, then possesses them and forces them to commit suicide in front of a witness, who the entity then attaches itself to, repeating the process—and plays it out on a Britney Spears-esque pop star named Riley Skye7 (Naomi Scott).
Riley is in the midst of a comeback after a drug-fueled car crash left her actor boyfriend8 dead and her own life shattered. Sober and struggling, she’s rehearsing for a huge comeback tour and not in a great headspace. When she tweaks her back, she seeks out an old friend to score some Vicodin, and unwittingly becomes the next recipient of the parasitic entity when she watches her clearly terrified friend kill himself via the very normal process of slamming a heavy weight into his face repeatedly.
This is a terrific twist on the original idea: By putting the Smile curse on Riley, the film can play with the fake-ass bullshit of celebrity, where everyone smiles at you and tells you how great you are all the time, and the bottomless trauma that Riley is dealing with9. Coupled with a truly inspired performance by Scott10, Smile 2 is a deeper and more fun experience than the original.
It also does all this while shaping a rarity in these sorts of films: The protagonist who ... kind of deserves it?
I'm a Bitch, I'm a Lover, I'm a Child, I'm a Mother
Riley isn’t evil, but she’s not a very good person11. She’s actually very self-aware, and spends much of the film ruminating on how much of an asshole she is. And she is! She’s cranky, entitled, and unconcerned with other people’s inconvenience. She’s selfish and unpredictable, and she is directly responsible for a lot of misery inflicted on other people12. Most notably, she’s responsible for the death of her boyfriend, as a flashback reveals she deliberately crashed their car in a moment of drug-fueled rage.
A protagonist doesn’t need to be a hero, of course, but in many horror films of the “unstoppable evil” variety they’re presented as good people in order to really sharpen the impact of the terrible, awful things happening to them. A bad person being punished isn’t as shocking. Riley’s kind of an asshole, so watching her fall apart feels more like justice of a regrettably rough sort. But this is why the sequel sings better than the first film—because Riley is an asshole and knows she’s an asshole, she approaches the abuse she endures as if she knows, deep down, that she deserves it. In the end, the Smile Demon takes on her own form in her hallucinations, because Riley’s real problem is Riley, in case you didn’t get that.
And yet, Scott manages to make Riley likable enough despite being at a high level of shitty for most of the movie. She sells Riley’s lack of self-development—this is a woman who has zero control of her own life. In a triumph of product placement, Riley sucks down water from a Voss bottle every few minutes, guzzling it like she’ll burn to a cinder if her hydration level drops by so much as a percentage point. Later she reveals that this was a trick given to her by a sobriety counselor: When she feels the need to get high, she should drink a glass of water. Let’s just say Riley drinks a lot of water, all the time in this film, giving you a hint as to the level of inner turmoil she’s experiencing13.
Plus, no one does “terrified face” like Scott. I never thought much of her as an actress before, but this film as turned me around: Give her the horror movie equivalent of an Oscar already.
The Smile Demon would never work on me. It would be serving up these terrifying hallucinations but I never look at people directly, and also I have that face blindness thing14, so I’d just coast on by. Poor thing would starve to death waiting for me to get scared.
NEXT WEEK: The Apartment and Visual World-Building
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To be fair, I have the memory of a sleep-deprived cat and a fair amount of face blindness, so barely know what I’m up to at any given time.
Here’s a secret: All of my delight is childlike. Also my enthusiasms, fashion sense, and flavor palate.
I’m stoked any time my labor is reduced to pressing a button. I’m the last person you want to recruit for your Milgram-type experiments.
38 years later, I finally got rid of cable TV and felt tremendous relief. Life sure is something.
Most of my hours are spent dozing in a sunbeam. This is quality time.
Is The Unlikable Protagonist the title of my memoir? Yes, and well deserved.
The greatest trick ever played is making me believe that someone could actually be named Britney Spears in real life. Well-played.
Played by Ray Nicholson, who definitely has his father’s smile. Which is probably a blessing and a curse, since so far every time I’ve seen him in a film he’s being asked to smile all the time for what I think are obvious reasons.
Including this scene, where the Smile Demon takes the form of Riley’s backup dancers, and which is legitimately terrific.
Seriously: Few actors could maintain the level of wild-eyed paranoia that Scott manages throughout this film.
My ears are burning.
My ears are ON FIRE.
She also drinks it with the urgent, thirsty gusto of me at 5PM on Friday when it’s socially acceptable to drink straight from a bottle of whiskey for forty uninterrupted seconds. It, uh, is socially acceptable, right? Don’t answer that.
This is only half a joke. I spend much of my time desperately trying to figure out if the person approaching me on the street is a neighbor or friend or blood relation.