One Of 2024’s Best Horror Movies Is Taking Over Prime Video’s Top Charts

The demon from Parker Finn’s “Smile” movies has a very peculiar mode of operations. It’s largely invisible, and it can induce hallucinations in its chosen hosts. It typically appears to its victims as someone they know, or perhaps a stranger, but always wearing a very creepy smile. For a few weeks, the demon tortures its host with hallucinations, eventually taking over their bodies. Once possessed, the victim themselves would smile horrifyingly, while taking their own life. The self-slaughter is, as the demon dictates, performed in front of a witness. The witness, in seeing a smiling person kill themselves, gives them trauma that allows the demon to pass onto them. The cycle then repeats. 

The “Smile” movies are very clearly about the way trauma can be passed from generation to generation, and how violence and self-harm can create a never-ending cycle. Despite the strangeness of the premise, the “Smile” movies are surprisingly scary, with director Finn imbuing them with a dizzying, nightmarish quality that feels dream-logical, even as they spin out of control. The first film set up an interesting premise, but 2024’s “Smile 2” ratcheted up the terror, becoming one of the best horror movies of the year. Critic Amy Nicholson, writing for the Los Angeles Times, called it one of the best movies of 2024.

As of this writing, “Smile 2” is currently attracting a lot of viewers on Amazon Prime, debuting this week at #3 on its movie charts, and #7 overall (ranking just below “Beast Games”). It is attracting just about as many viewers as the gangbusters hit “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” It seems that horror fans are eager to be traumatized. That’s a good thing. “Smile 2” rules. /Film’s Chris Evangelista gave it a glowing review. 

The main character of “Smile 2” is Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), a world-famous pop star who recently canceled a high-profile tour because she was in a car accident. Her hateful boyfriend Paul (Ray Nicholson, Jack’s son) was killed in the accident, and she finally had to admit she was addicted to many substances. The aftermath has left her traumatized and struggling to recover, hoping no one sees the fresh surgical scar on her stomach. She also still suffers from chronic pain, and has to reconnect with her old dealer (Lukas Gage) to get the painkillers she requires. Her dealer, however, has been infected with the Smiling Demon, and, after a harrowing night at his apartment, will pass its way to Skye. 

Scott is center-frame throughout the vast bulk of “Smile 2,” and she is off-balance and terrified most of the time. Any small amount of comfort she experiences is ripped away from her by the hallucinations of her demon parasite. No one around her trusts that she isn’t merely having a nervous breakdown, and some suspect that she may be using again. Even her ultra-manager mother (Rosemarie DeWitt) is more focused on Skye’s upcoming comeback tour than her daughter’s well-being. 

“Smile 2” is awesome, and Naomi Scott never turns her performance below a 10, compellingly portraying a person who is way out on the edge, and may not be able to come back. It’s her performance, along with Cristobal Tapia de Veer’s groaning, haunted, electronic score, that make “Smile 2” one of 2024’s more notable horror neo-classics. It seems that more and more people are discovering it, which is a grim thought if you know how “Smile 2” ends. 

Oh. You don’t know how it ends? Maybe go over to Prime Video and see.