All through October, I’ll be posting reviews of the best of the best films in the horror genre released since October 1, 2024, through September 30, 2025. As an added bonus, I’ll be adding a secondary review that may be somewhat related to the main review or slightly missed the countdown by inches. Follow along the countdown every day in October. Feel free to agree, disagree, or better yet, give me your own picks for your favorite horror movies of the year. Happy Halloween!

13. SMILE 2 (2024)

Released on October 18, 2024, and streaming on Paramount+ from Paramount Pictures!
Directed/Written by Parker Finn.
Check out the trailer here!!

Pop star Skye Riley (played by Naomi Scott) had a rough go of it last year as her drug addiction lead to the death of her actor boyfriend Paul (played by Jack Nicholson’s son Ray Nicholson). One year and an extended stay at rehab and Skye is ready for a comeback. But when she hits up an old friend for Adderall, Skye becomes afflicted with the smile curse—a highly contagious curse that slowly drives you insane until you are forced to kill yourself in a violent way in front of someone new in order to pass the curse along to the next poor schlub.

The original SMILE was a highly effective, yet highly derivative curse thriller. It was also highly popular so of course, they rushed a sequel out two years later. Thankfully, a lot of what worked in the original is present in SMILE 2. There’s the creepy ass music made of backwards playing odd instruments, strange angles making one feel uneasy and off balance, the reoccurring uncanny look of the stretched smile across a dead eyed face , and the frantic pace depicting a person slowly going from sane to insane in the span of a about two hours.

For some reason, many have said SMILE 2 is even better than the first SMILE film. I respectfully disagree as the original was a film deeply enmeshed with the Smile curse being a metaphor for trauma that follows one long after the horrifying event occurred. Upon witnessing a violent death, the cursed are haunted by that memory and driven to madness and eventually suicide. There is also a requirement for some to pass on that trauma to someone, be it a loved one or even a therapist. In the first film, a therapist experiences an extreme reaction to a client, it gave transference, and the lack of self-care a monstrous form. It is something that occurs often in the profession and the deft metaphor explored in the first film really makes how devastating those concepts really are.

Now I’m not saying SMILE 2 is bad, but instead of dealing with someone in the helping profession, it opens the film up to a broader audience by inflicting a pop star with the Smile curse. It’s fine that they do this. But the metaphor is lesser and feels much more like a cash grab than another profession that might experience extreme trauma like a police officer or a firefighter or an ER nurse. I feel like I can see the producers meeting now, with a bunch of suits asking, “What do the kids love these days?” And someone speaks up, “Well, my niece loves Taylor Swift.” And then the suit says, “Bully idea! We can lure into the tween market by appealing to the mainstream love of pop music! Make a movie about that! We can have dance numbers and songs for the soundtrack and behind the scenes shots of the lead drinking lots of water and let’s put Jack Nicholson’s son in it for the hell of it.” Everyone then nods in unison, and the meeting ends and filming of SMILE 2 begins.

Now appealing to a wide audience is not a terrible thing. I prefer a film to go a bit deeper than that, but the deeper you get into something, the more likelihood the film is not going to resonate. SMILE 2 feels like the first film, but with more appeal to that younger audience. It’s a dumbed down version of the trauma metaphor and I understand those in the helping profession are not the only ones who deal with trauma, and everyone processes trauma in their own way. Still, it just feels much shallower than the first film as it appeals to a more surface level obsession with pop culture. Keeping with the recording industry idea, it’s like SMILE was the first breakout album that broke ground and felt like a discovery to listeners, while SMILE 2 is the safe follow-up album meant to make money the band didn’t make from the first deal.

That said, the SMILE franchise is not as original as most would realize. It is very much like the rise in “curse” films that could be traced back to Universal classics like THE WOLF MAN and THE MUMMY. But it really began to pick up steam with the Cronenbergian STD body horrors of the 70’s and 80’s like SHIVER and RABID, or the spreading contagion zombie films of Romerolike THE CRAZIES, DAWN, and DAY OF THE DEAD. Even the contagious nightmare dreams Craven worked with in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET are worth mentioning. But it was J-horror films like JU-ON THE GRUDGE and RINGU that seemed to focus on the rise in tech and brought the curse films back into the limelight in the oughts. After films like that became Americanized, along came the massively influential IT FOLLOWS to revive the curse genre which heavily influenced many modern horrors today such as TALK TO ME, THE BOOGEYMAN, and of course, SMILE.

If you saw my SMILE review from a few years ago, you have heard this theory, but for the sake of this review and new readers, I don’t mind revisiting it. With the rise of cancel culture, where someone says or does something and it makes them a pariah, an outcast, a monster in a community, if you will. I feel the new rise in curse films over the years isn’t a coincidence. Like a cancelled person, something occurs, and that person is immediately marked, experiencing symptoms that make them an outcast in their peer group. This often occurs in high school, which is why a lot of these films revolve around teen stars and appeal to teen viewers. Sadly, with Twitter being the equivalent of high school for adults, the same shit happens there. But all you have to do with these films is replace cursed with cancelled, and you can see the metaphor pretty clearly. Of course, this is something humans have been doing since the Scarlet Letter, so while the cursed and outcasted sub-genre of horror might be trendy as all get out, it’s far from an original concept.

All of that said, I like SMILE 2 quite a bit. In this one Skye is cancelled because she is filmed taking drugs, physically fighting with her boyfriend, assaulting a camera operator, and then being involved in a wreck causing her boyfriend’s death. Skye’s goal in the film is to stage a comeback, and she has a new album, a new hairdo, and a new management team consisting of her overprotective mother (played by Rosemarie DeWitt). Despite all of these attempts to remake herself, Sky’s reliance on drugs drags her back in to putting her career in danger. That same hindrance is what puts her directly in the headlights of the SMILE curse.

Naomi Scott is pretty darn phenomenal as Skye, our fading star staging a comeback. She goes through an emotional taffy machine and though she has done some horrible things, Scott still manages to be relatable and likable. No easy feat and with her boppy little noggin in the middle of the screen for the whole film, Scott is crucial in making this movie work. I can’t wait to see this actor again in more roles as Scott killed it both on singing and dancing on-stage and cracking up behind the scenes.

Much ado has been added to this film because it also stars Ray Nicholson, Jack Nicholson’s son. But honestly, he has an exceedingly small role and what he does isn’t that spectacular. He does have a scene where he does the Shining grin. So, there’s that. But I was much more excited to see Kyle Gallner, who kicked major ass in STRANGE DARLING. His role is small but served as a nice connective tissue with the original film.

There is plenty of crazy, trippy gore in SMILE 2, especially later in the film when our starlet’s cheese slides right off the ritz. The Smile monster itself looks different from the original, suggesting everyone sees the beast differently from the last. There is also some highly creative gore and jump-scares, including a scene towards the end that felt a little too close to the ending of a far superior film, THE SUBSTANCE. Though there’s no way this film would have known about the similarities, as both were filming at the same time.

What I am thankful for is that both TRAP and SMILE 2 are released and I don’t have to see two trailers cut the exact same way to appeal to Swifties in theaters. Past the grab for mass appeal, I hope SMILE 3, and you know there will be another one, given the reception to this sequel, goes to a deeper subject to plum for trauma like the aforementioned police, firefighter, or nurse angle. But who am I kidding? The only improved arena to go is politics, so I imagine that’ll be the next area where smiling will be a curse.

The smiley face symbol shows up quite a bit in today’s worth noting choice, THE STRANGERS CHAPTER 2. On the Scarecrow sack headed killer, the graffiti on the walls, the tattoos on various characters, and even showing up in the final memorable scene. THE STRANGERS CHAPTER 2 was miles better than CHAPTER 1. The alone is worth noting.

Worth Noting: THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 2 (2025)

Released on September 26, 2025, and in theaters now from Lionsgate!
Directed by Renny Harlin.
Written by Alan R. Cohen, Alan Freedland.
Check out the trailer here!!

Continuing immediately after the events of CHAPTER 1, THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 2 starts with Maya (Madelaine Petsch) waking up in a hospital on the mend after being stalked by three masked strangers while taking a vacation trip with her fiancée Ryan (Froy Gutierrez). She finds out Ryan was killed and Sheriff Rotter (Richard Brake) and his deputy Walters (Pedro Leandro) promise Maya they will catch the killer. Well, the film actually begins with a quick montage, letting us know the identity of one of the Strangers, but I’ll get into that in a bit. Maya wakes up after a nightmare to see a message that her sister is on her way into town and then hears a disturbance out in the hall. Unhooking from her vitals, Maya leaves her room to find that the Strangers are in the hospital. This begins an endless cat-and-mouse chase that basically takes up the entire film, as Maya escapes the hospital and is pursued through the surrounding Oregon woods by the Strangers.

I was going into THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 2 with trepidation. I couldn’t avoid seeing the amount of videos out there from the usual suspects who put their faces in the thumbnails with looking exasperated, angry, and confused. I do try to avoid watching reviews before writing mine, but the images alone told me enough of what I thought I was going to see. Or so I thought.

It turns out, I kind of liked THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER TWO. Like many of you, I felt the first in this new series of THE STRANGERS movies was pointless, following the same roadmap the original THE STRANGERS film did, only with actors I didn’t know, less of that thick, claustrophobic atmosphere, and less of Brian Bertino’s deft handling of soul-shearing suspense and taught tension. I guess that setup was necessary for us to get this second act, where things finally go off that well-worn path blazed by the original, and new ground can be covered. Now starting off immediately after the first one and having the protagonist wake up in a hospital is far from original. It’s basically the same plot of the original HALLOWEEN II. But while there are a few set pieces taking place in the hospital that were familiar, Harlin smartly takes the action out of the hospital and into the cold, rainy forest surrounding it.

Here’s the thing, the main criticism of the original was that it was unoriginal and didn’t add anything to the overall mythos of THE STRANGERS. So what happens in the second one? It goes down a new path and a bit more about the Strangers themselves is revealed. Now one might say that lifting the masks of the Strangers is going against what makes them so damn scary in the first place. And to that I agree. There’s nothing like an origin story of the masked killer or the enigmatic hero that knee-caps what is interesting about the character. Not everyone needs an origin. It is the same as explaining a joke. It’s just not as effective if you have to dive into the mechanics of it all.

That said, this peek behind the mask refers to the Pinup Girl Stranger, as we get flashbacks to a key moment in her development as a child. I won’t reveal much more, other than these flashbacks are somewhat cliched at times, but because Nola Wallace, the little actress playing young Pinup Girl, is so good at being bad, these scenes worked for me. It allowed for the movie, which is basically one big chase scene, to flip to a side plot now and then when there needs to be a scene change or a period of time passed. Harlin really seemed to want to put just a skosh of backstory to the character, while still keeping things enigmatic and at times, downright otherworldly. Now, I don’t know if we need this origin-style tale from the other two masked Strangers, as this flashback seems to deal with the Scarecrow Stranger as well, but for me, this was enough without straight up telling me the origin step-by-step.

But Harlin holds onto some of his cards. There is still Sheriff Rotter lingering around in the background, dragging his heels on this investigation. And like introducing a gun in the first act and never firing it, things just wouldn’t be right if Harlin doesn’t use the devious Richard Brake as some part of this masked Stranger conspiracy. Or maybe Brake is just a red herring. Only time will tell.

I will say that I was never bored with THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 2. One of the lost arts in slasher films is the cat-and-mouse chase scene where the protagonist understands the threat and basically, tries to use the environment and any tools around her to survive. Done perfectly in FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 or any of the other early FRIDAY’s, this is a trope that has faded through the years and I, for one, missed it. Having an entire film set on one girl running away from three masked Strangers might seem redundant and light on plot, but Harlin has a strong handle on action, making each new challenge for Maya exciting and dangerous. There are a few scenes, such as the hospital curtain scene and the horse stables scene that felt redundant, but for the most part, Harlin keeps the challenges varied.

There is an especially unique and strange sequence that I won’t reveal, but it adds an odd little detail to the rural nature of the setting and the origin of the Strangers. It involves a CGI animal that actually looked pretty good and reminded me of the bear attack sequence in THE REVENANT. Now, it wasn’t as brutal as that, but still, it was something I hadn’t seen before and that was surely appreciated. It also shows how determined and resourceful our little heroine Maya truly is.

There is a bit of plot armor in Maya’s character, simply because she most likely would factor into the third installment where her fate is less than safe. Still, even though I knew she wasn’t going to get kakked, Madelaine Petsch does a great job of making these threats feel threatening, while also taking a whole lot of wear and tear herself along the way. She’s a good little actress, even though there are long scenes without dialog as she has to just keep quiet, tear up, and hide from the Strangers over and again. Still, Harlin manages to work in a gratuitous scene of her in her undies which was definitely appreciated.

It’s going to boil down to what you want in a slasher film whether or not this new chapter in Renny Harlin’s THE STRANGERS saga is going to be for you. Personally, I like the thrill of the hunt and while I do like a good tense scare and a lot of mystery, I found THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 2 to be thrilling from beginning to end. It’s the middle chapter of this series with the next one wrapping the whole thing up soon. I’m hoping that the third one is released sooner rather than later, kind of like how the next 28 YEARS LATER film is due out only six months after it’s first trilogy installment. Final verdict: I liked THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 2. I didn’t think I was going to, but Harlin and Co. really delivered the goods with this one and almost redeemed itself after that unoriginal first chapter.

The Best in Horror Countdown 2024-2025
#31 – GET AWAY (DARK MATCH)
#30 – PABRIK GULA (#MISSINGCOUPLE)
#29 – YULE LOG 2: BRANCHIN’ OUT (THE LAST VIDEO STORE)
#28 – FREWAKA (THE SURRENDER)
#27 – FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES (V/H/S/BEYOND)
#26 – ALMA AND THE WOLF (CUSTOM)
#25 – LOOKY-LOO (THE CREEP TAPES)
#24 – DANGEROUS ANIMALS (THE MAN IN THE WHITE VAN)
#23 – THE MONKEY (THE DAMNED)
#22 – THE DEVIL AND THE DAYLONG BROTHERS (THE SEVERED SUN)
#21 – TERRIFIER 3 (CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD)
#20 – PRESENCE (HOUSE ON EDEN)
#19 – THE RULE OF JENNY PEN (GRAFTED)
#18 – PARVULOS: CHILDREN OF THE APOCALYPSE (AZRAEL)
#17 – MADS (A MOTHER’S EMBRACE)
#16 – STRANGE HARVEST (THE ASMA JOURNALS)
#15 – DEUS IRAE (SHADOW OF GOD)
#14 – TOGETHER (CANNIBAL MUCKBANG)
#13 – SMILE 2 (THE STRANGERS CHAPTER 2)