The sophomore filmmaker still loves his jump scares, but "Smile 2" suggests that his horror series could have real legs as an ongoing anthology of character studies.

"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.

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.

Writer-Director Parker Finn's Smile 2 is one of the best theater horror experiences of the year, thanks to its darkness and its absurdity. The post REVIEW: ‘Smile 2’ Is The Sequel I Didn’t Know I Needed appeared first on But Why Tho?

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,