Smile 2 (2024)

It's no secret that the original Smile (from 2022) is one of my favourite creepy movies, for its genuine ability to get under my skin, so I had high hopes for the sequel, Smile 2, released on disc in the UK this week.

Sadly, the film isn't a particularly strong sequel as it mainly retreads a lot of the mythology created in the first movie, seemingly only choosing to build on it right at the last moment. And the suggested implications of this contradict what the established lore of the central demon's M.O. 

Personally, I would have liked a story that dug deeper into the backstory of the supernatural parasite at the heart of this franchise, rather than once again going over how it drives its victims insane and feeds off of them.

Picking up the story six days from the end of the first movie, the demonic "Smile" entity is passed on to drug dealer Lewis Fregoli (Lukas Gage).

Meanwhile, global pop sensation, Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) is preparing for a world tour, after a year recovering from a car crash that killed her boyfriend, actor Paul Hudson (Ray Nicholson), and severely injured her.

With a history of substance abuse, Skye finds it hard to obtain legal pain medication and so turns to her dealer... Lewis Fregoli.

Lewis is behaving very strangely when Skye arrives and eventually kills himself - in a particularly gruesome manner - right in front of her.

Soon after, Skye starts to have very vivid, and horrific, hallucinations and is seeing people with twisted smiles plastered across their faces.

While shocking and graphic in places, Smile 2 is slow to get going and I only found myself really getting drawn into the story at the mid-point of the two hour movie.

A lot of the shocks revolve around needles and broken glass, which is quite squirm-inducing, meaning Smile 2 feels more concerned with physical horror than the psychological horror of the first film.

There's a definite air of Emma Roberts around Naomi's portrayal of Skye, and our protagonist could easily have been any number of the self-absorbed, horrible characters that Roberts has played in the American Horror Story franchise. 

Skye isn't an easy character to get invested in, and therefore care about.

However, as she plunges deeper into her demon-fuelled psychosis, the film certainly becomes stronger, with one particularly impressive plot twist that reminded me of another of my favourite movies (although I can't say which as that will give the game away).

As Skye is a pop star - and the marketing for this movie brilliantly created a genuine online media presence for the character, from her own Instagram account to music videos - this means there's as much music in Smile 2 as the much maligned Joker: Folie à Deux.

Does this make Smile 2 a musical?

For my money, it's a fun, ultragory, horror tale that rehashes the mythology of its progenitor in a flashy new setting, but falls way short of Smile's unnerving originality.

Creation of The Gods I - Kingdom of Storms (2023)

With Creation of The Gods II: Demon Force scheduled for cinematic release at the end of this month, I thought it was the right time for me to cast an eye over Creation of The Gods I: Kingdom of Storms.

Thankfully, independent British distributor Cine Asia has released this 148-minute epic in a lovely Blu-Ray edition.

The Creation of The Gods trilogy is an adaptation of 16th Century fantasy novel Investiture of the Gods written by the Ming dynasty author Xu Zhonglin.

Kingdom of Storms is essentially a fantastic and fictitious retelling of the political fallout following the ascension of the last king of Shang dynasty.

Triumphant war hero Yin Shou (Fei Xiang) returns to his father's court - after quelling a rebellion - to be feted for his victory.

However, unknown to all, he has been seduced by a nine-tailed fox demon, who has possessed the body of the late Su Daji (Narana Erdyneeva), daughter of the rebellion's leader. And who can blame him really?

Narana Erdyneeva as Su Daji

Through some magical manipulation around the celebratory feast both Yin Shou's father and then his elder brother are slain, leaving him next in line for the throne.

However, this act triggers something supernatural called The Great Curse, which could potentially wipe mankind from the face of the Earth, with Yin Shou's self-sacrifice being divined as the only solution.

He says he's willing to do it... but we all know he's not!

At the same time, the mystic immortals of Kunlun send a trio of monks to deliver a magical scroll to Yin Shou that will save the world from the effects of the curse.

However, they quickly realise that the tyrant Yin Shou is not the right person to possess this power and a running battle ensues for the scroll and to topple the king.

Based on a 500-year-old story of events that took place in 2,000BC China, Kingdom of Storms is a complex, mesmerising tale of wuxia swords and sorcery.

Starting off as a magnificent, and quite grisly, grounded war tale, the supernatural elements are slowly seeded in with the arrival of the fox demon, then we meet the Immortals (who are basically superheroes), an evil sorcerer (whose powers include being able to safely remove his own head and animating enormous stone fu dog statues), a green-skinned demonic baby and so on.

Although the film is two-and-a-half hours of reading subtitles, the narrative sucks you in as the action gallops along, so you are drawn in to the wonderment of the visuals and the storytelling. 

There's even a couple of "mid-credit scenes" as the very long, Chinese language, credits roll - so you'll probably want to keep your finger on the 'fast forward' button once the main movie ends.

While there are echoes of Lord of The Rings, and even Game of Thrones, in Kingdom of Storms, director Wuershan - who co-wrote the script with Jianan Ran, Ping Ran, and Cao Sheng - has crafted a mighty vision that reminded me of the visceral thrills I felt when I first saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Zu: Warriors of The Magic Mountain.

There is a jaw-dropping majesty in Creation of The Gods I: Kingdom of Storms that emphasises, as if you needed telling, that cinema is a global artform, not limited to Hollywood or the UK, and other cultures have very different, but no less engrossing, ideas of how to entertain an audience.

I hope Cine Asia is able to release Creation of The Gods II: Demon Force on Blu-Ray reasonably quickly after the film hits cinemas, and then Creation of The Gods III: Creation Under Heaven follows swiftly after that.