The shape-shifting demon of Smile and its new sequel, Smile 2, is like an Internet edgelord of evil: He not only revels in the suffering of his triggered victims, he returns that feeling with a mocking grin, an IRL emoji of ‘ you’. Afraid brother?” malice. Parker Finn’s relentlessly unnerving horror sleeper introduced this unholy troll: a deceptive phantom that ends its host via grisly, involuntary suicide and then passes on, virus-style, to hapless witnesses. Along the way, the monster takes on various human forms, all with a shit-eating, ear-to-ear rictus. Rather, there is something sarcastic about that expression, right? “Don’t worry, be happy,” it sneers in the face of mounting anxiety.

If you’ve ever felt pressure to turn a frown upside down at public appearances, you might see a little of yourself in these exaggerated smiles. Slightly less recognizable, at least for most of us, are the emotional circumstances that Smile 2 captures in its funny mirror. After all, the cursed heroine of this bloody, spicy second part, also written and directed by Finn, is a pop star as big as Ariana. To her, that cruel Joker beam is the face of fame—of an industry machine that demands she be always on, of a paparazzi that always says “cheese,” of screaming fans who connect their own joy to hers. This time the bogeyman paints the grotesque underside of the showbiz dream as pearly white. Talk about a resonant angle at the end of a summer ruled by Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan and Charli XCX.

The perfectly named Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) catches the self-harm after landing a front-row seat to her Vicodin dealer’s face-crushing makeout session with an iron weight. The monster, along with Skye, hit the jackpot of the burdened psyche. The star is still recovering from a near life- and career-ending car crash – a numbing joy ride that killed her movie star boyfriend and which Finn shows us through gruesome nightmare flashbacks arranged by old Smiley. In addition to her injuries and newfound sobriety, Skye has to contend with a pushy stage mother (Rosemarie DeWitt, now old enough to play the role of parent to a thirty-something woman – enough to scare any real thirty-something who still thinks of her as the titular bride by Rachel Getting. Married), a demanding record label bigwig (Raúl Castillo), and her guilt over a friendship she torpedoed during that year of narcotic living. And of course there’s the pressure of a comeback tour that kicks off in a few days.

The best moments in Smile 2 tap into the specific tensions of stardom in the music world. There’s a great scene, hardly supernatural in nature, in which Skye – mouth smeared with blood-red lipstick – has to make some encouraging remarks at a charity event, and as the teleprompter freezes, she begins an uncomfortably honest, improvised speech that leaves out the supposedly confessional Taylor Swift blush with shame. Previously, an encounter with a disturbed stalker during a meet-and-greet made it clear that danger comes with a smile if you have a winner to your name. Watching the film, one moment you might think of Amy Winehouse (Skye’s mental and physical well-being is constantly prioritized among her obligations to the machine), the next moment of the new and uncomfortably famous Roan.

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