The Underrated Horror With One Of The Best Movie Monsters Of The Past Decade Just Quietly Hit Netflix
Zoë Miskelly is an editor and second in command for Screen Rant's Movies team, having covered the entertainment industry for almost 10 years now. Zoë's love of superheroes and all things Marvel & DC started out in childhood, and has blossomed into a career getting to talk about some of the biggest and best movies and shows of all time, having previously focused on comics while working at WhatCulture.
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An underrated psychological horror movie with a truly terrifying and strikingly unique monster quietly hit Netflix at the start of September, meaning it's currently available for those who want to give it a watch. The world of horror is one of the most varied and often strongest in the wide open space that is the history of film, particularly when it comes to the concept of monsters.
Though not every monster depicted in horror films is malicious, these figures are consistently used for some of the genre's most striking scares, and most engrossing narratives, as it's hard to see a compelling or downright bizarre creature without immediately being gripped by a story far more than you were before, even if that may also come with a side serving of being gripped by fear at the same time as a result.
One of the latest additions to Netflix's movie offerings comes into this territory, though it approaches its monster in a manner befitting the horror genre, with the creature not being visible properly until the very last scenes of its story - so that the final reveal can be both as exciting as possible, and as horrific and unsettling as possible for viewers.
Smile 2 Has Been Available On Netflix From September 1
Smile 2 came onto Netflix alongside a wide range of the platform's other releases on September 1, continuing the streaming service's track record of having the start of any given month see the arrival and exit of a range of movies and shows to keep its on-screen offerings fresh.
Covering the dramatic second chapter in the psychological horror movie series, Smile 2 is a perfect fit for Netflix, both because the genre is often a hit for the platform, and because the Smile series' malicious entity provides some stellar if horrifying visuals along with its premise over the course of the sequel perhaps moreso than the original film.
Whereas Smile focuses on a therapist who finds themselves dealing with an entity that curses and can possess those who see other infected people - leading them to maim or kill themselves while smiling - upon being exposed to it via one of her patients, Smile 2 instead focuses on an aspiring pop star, Skye Riley, who finds herself forced to deal with the entity after the ending of Smile leads to a chain reaction that sees plenty more people to be placed in its supernatural crosshairs.
This premise allows both Smile movies to split themselves between being compelling horror movies that are packed with action and eye-catching moments, and more psychological explorations of things like grief and trauma, with the entity seeming to also be a metaphor around mental health more broadly speaking.
That said, this doesn't mean the movies skimp out on making things gripping on a less metaphorical level too, as the visual of the entity that's depicted in graphic detail at the end of Smile and Smile 2 ensures, as both movies close by depicting the creature as a skinless fleshy being with many, many smiling mouths in the crescendo of their events.
Why Smile 2 Was Overlooked Despite Its Solid Reviews
Smile 2 managed to better the already positive reviews of its predecessor with its own story and striking ability to build tension and keep its thematic aspects consistent in the series.
While the original 2022 Smile has a 79% Tomatometer score from critics and a 77% Popcornmeter score from more general audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, Smile 2's own Rotten Tomatoes scores are that of an 86% critic score and an 81% audience score, reflecting a notable increase in overall perception of and reception to the second installment.
However, Smile 2's lower box office resultsm when combined with these reviews, appears to highlight the real challenges the film faced, both in terms of being a sequel that had no real cliffhanger ending or anything of the like to encourage audiences to see it, and to have released during a time wherein horror film series have often had more mixed results - though this arguably means it's only all the more worth watching or rewatching on Netflix as a result, especially with Smile 3 reportedly in the works.
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