Smile 1 sucked, it ripped off so much from It Follows and The Ring. It felt like an “elevated horror” movie for dumbasses. Also she had a verifiable trail of evidence detailing what was happening to her I always hate when horror movies have nobody believes the protagonist. And she was a mental health worker too to make my main two points more valid. Also idk its a bit stupid too an evil smile makes people kill themselves. Cool monster at the end tho.
Smile 2 is awesome because it ditched the lame-ass lore and made protagonist a popstar with substance abuse issues and the car crash thing so the audience can pretty easily infer that theres some trauma going on being the theme. And we just get thrust into the mystery and terror with the protagonist. Also she was way more interesting than Smile 1 protag. It ditched the baby elevated horror nonsense for pure schlock and thrills. Hell yeah its getting better reviews.
Yeah I mean it reminded me of an Herschel Gordon Lewis movie but for modern times