To everyone reading, here is your SPOILER ALERT! This edition of Buzz Beats will be covering some of the plot of Smile 2 and a bit of Smile, and talk about themes of substance abuse and death/suicide. If this isn’t the review for you, no worries! We’ll see you in the next one!
Smile 2, a psychological supernatural horror film, was released on October 18, 2024, in theaters and is the sequel to the 2022 film Smile. The movie was written and directed by Parker Finn and stars Naomi Scott as the leading lady, Skye Riley. The movie follows Skye Riley as she prepares for her comeback tour while experiencing multiple disturbing events. “Smile 2: The Skye Riley EP” was released as a way to make noise for the upcoming movie, and show the audience some of the music of the fictional music star, Skye Riley. Although a fun idea, the album itself could have used a bit more work, especially since some of the music sounded a bit AI-like or just unfinished.
“Grieved You” is the first song in the movie during a segment in which Skye Riley appears on an episode of the “Drew Barrymore Show.” A segment of the music video for this song plays before the two begin to talk to introduce her. On the show, Skye discusses with Drew her previous struggle with substance abuse and how she ended up in a mental health hospital after causing a car crash that killed her boyfriend, Paul Hudson (Ray Nicholson).
“Grieved You”
Rating: ★★
Although it’s a decently made song, I feel that this song tried way too hard to sound trendy or like something made for TikTok. The lyrics are fine, and the instrumental is okay, but there’s little to no other substance. One of the co-writers for this song was Tate Mcrae, and I feel that is why I dislike this specific song. Tate McRae’s music is not my style, and this song sounded a lot like her music.
Following this, “New Brain” begins playing in a dance performance style as Skye and her background dancers prepare and practice the choreography for her tour. During this scene, Skye ends up turning wrong and injuring her back, leading her to end up at Lewis’s house, a person she was previously in cahoots with. Previously in the movie, Lewis had gotten the Smile curse from Joel, a character who witnessed someone kill themselves in front of him in the first movie, Smile. Skye goes to Lewis’s house to buy Vicodin to treat her pain, however, he ends up killing himself in front of her, ending up giving her the Smile curse.
New Brain
Rating: ★★★½
I think that this song is good! I don’t think this is the best off of the album but is an improvement from the previous song. I think the song itself has some good vocals, a fun feel, and some good lyrics. I am only giving it a 3.5 because I feel that it’s only good because of the context of the movie and how it relates. Overall, the song is fine, but if it were just released by anyone else, I likely wouldn’t care much for it.
After having hallucinations and an encounter with a creepy man at a fan meet & greet, Skye goes back to her apartment to practice a new song that she had written. During the song, a glass water bottle she was drinking from suddenly shattered on the ground. As she investigates the cause of the shattering, she finds a shirt from the creepy man that she had signed. As she continues down her hallway, the camera pans and shows all of the clothes the man was wearing, and him standing at the end of her hallway. After being chased, she opens her door to find her friend standing there, realizing it was all a hallucination.
Just My Name & Just My Name (Piano Version)
Rating: ★★★
I am rating both songs as one because I feel the same about them. I enjoy the lyrics and some of the wordplay that is featured in this song, but I don’t find that the beat or the music itself is very interesting. Like all of the other songs previously mentioned, this song also doesn’t have a lot of substance when it comes to the longevity of this song. In 5 years, I feel like this song won’t have any relevance or even really be remembered when it comes to talking about this movie. Like the other two, this song isn’t necessarily bad, but there are a lot better songs that have been made specifically for movies.
The next morning, after waking up late, Skye’s mother comes to her apartment and scolds her for lack of respect for this tour. During the specific scene, Skye and her team of dancers are doing a test performance of this song as a way to practice on the stage how it would look for the audience during the tour. However, during the performance, Skye has another hallucination, which causes her to tumble back and hallucinate and injure her leg.
Blood On White Satin
Rating: ★★★★½
After the last three songs that weren’t that great, we finally get to the part of the album that I genuinely enjoy. This song in and of itself is good. When it comes to the beat, the lyrics, and the music itself, everything about this song has a very fun, dance feel. The thing I imagine when I listen to this song is being in a club in a music video and just jumping around and dancing. In my opinion, this more upbeat, energetic music is what fits the character of Skye Riley a lot more than the other three songs previously played. Similarly, the scene in the movie had such fun choreography with gorgeous visuals. Overall, one of, if not the best song on the album.
To end the movie, Skye Riley ends up at the tour in front of a large audience when she finally succumbs to the smile curse. Just before she tries to begin performing. A smiling version of herself appears in front of her, in which the smile curse materializes itself, and it rips itself out of her (hallucinated) body. The monster then approaches Skye and begins to open her jaw to climb inside of her. However, we see from the audience’s perspective that what Skye is seeing is only a hallucination, as she faints and drops to the stage. When she wakes back up, we see that she is now fully infected by the smile curse and ends up killing herself on stage with her microphone in her eye. After briefly showing what ended up happening to Skye, the credits immediately roll, playing “Death of Me.”
Death Of Me
Rating: ★★★★
For an end-credit song that only plays for around a minute before the other track starts, this song is also very good. Similar to the last song, this song has a similar fun, dance feel. It again makes me feel like I’m in a music video dancing at the club. The lyrics are very enjoyable, the beat has such a good feel, and the vocal effects solidify this song as one of the best on the album. However, it makes me a bit upset that in the movie it is cut so short because of how much fun the song is; however, I do think that the track that cuts into it works well.
As a fun treat, I will also be discussing the OTHER end credits song because of the way that the movie combines both “Death Of Me” and the “Smile End Credits Bonus” songs/instrumentals.
Smile End Credits Bonus
Rating: ★★★★★
To further torment Skye after her death, the Smile creature uses her safe space, music, as a way to continue to traumatize her. The “Smile End Credits Bonus” includes a grotesque remix of Skye’s most traumatic moments. This included the car crash, her fight with the monster in the abandoned building, and the sound of the impact of Skye hitting herself in the eye with her microphone. As a way to already end a terrifying movie, Cristobal Tapia de Veer created a perfect mix of terror and agony into a grotesque, eerie mash-up of pain.
Overall, I think the idea of creating an album for a pop star in a movie is a really fun way to create noise and outreach to the audience; however, I don’t think that this particular movie did it well enough to be appreciated fully. I think that some of the songs on the album could have been produced a bit more or had more thought put into them, simply because they try to seem as trendy as possible, which comes off as a bit tacky. Even if these songs were only made for this movie or social media, you should still want these songs to make noise or have an appeal to a larger audience, so that they’re not just one-and-done. The first few songs seem to only be catered toward more social media and the trends of the younger generation; however, it seems that that’s all they’re good for and aren’t that great outside of it.
Find the “Smile 2: The Skye Riley EP” by Skye Riley on Apple Music, Spotify, and other streaming platforms!
Find Smile 2 on MGM+ or Paramount+!
