Netflix adds and subtracts quality horror movies all the time, though it infrequently makes good ones of its own. Fortunately, its licensing arm does a good job of scooping up modern classics, and it has just added another one.

The movie is 2024’s Smile 2 , which may be an unexpected pick for what I would deem one of the best horror movies of the decade. I mean, it’s a long list, but Top 15? Top 20? For sure, at least for me.

I did not especially like Smile 1 . I thought it was fine; the concept was creepy, but the execution, no pun intended, was forgettable. I did not imagine the sequel would be terribly interesting as a result, but hey, a horror movie makes money, make it a franchise!

Smile 2 works because of one main reason: Naomi Scott, the lead of the film who played the Smile-demon-haunted Skye Riley, a pop star who begins slowly losing her mind as the smiles build up around her.

You probably know Scott best for her role as Jasmine in the live-action Aladdin movie. She was also one of the new Angels in the (pretty bad) Charlie’s Angels reboot movie in 2019. But it’s clear that neither of those was a vehicle to showcase her acting talent at the level they needed to, and her absolutely unhinged performance in Smile 2 was worthy of an Oscar nomination. I am not joking.

This is on my mind right now especially because of Obsession and the rise of the previously-unknown Inde Navarrette, who unexpectedly delivered one of the best horror performances of all time, where she actually seems set to land an Oscar nomination. It just seems like a parallel track, only Smile 2 didn’t blow open the box office, and Scott’s performance was tragically overlooked by almost everyone. I don’t think the first movie being ho-hum helped ( Smile 2 made a little more than half of what Smile 1 did), but she took the middling concept and knocked it out of the park. It’s genuinely at least 80% of the way to Navarrette level.

Some fans note that unlike Navarrette, this did not lead to big, breakout parts for Scott, who has only starred in one movie since, with one in the works. However, that’s not as much of a bummer as it may seem, as Scott is also an incredibly talented musical artist (hence the pop star casting) and recently came out with an album in March of this year that is genuinely great. It’s called FIG (Fall Into Grace), and it’s on Spotify, go listen to it. And go watch Smile 2 for her, if nothing else.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy .