Snowstorm Movies ...

 So we're experiencing the beginnings of a snowstorm here, and yesterday, after taking all my decorations down, grocery shopping, and getting firewood, we watched the rest of the 2nd Season of Squid 2, which doesn't end, actually, or it ends on a cliffhanger - to be continued in the final season sometime in 2025.

So we're ready to hunker down and watch movies. Other than Squid Game 2 and The Old Oak, we also just watched Smile 2, after thinking the first Smile was a pretty good horror flick.

However, as usual, IMO, the sequel was ... very disappointing. 

This time, I do NOT agree with the critics, though I often do.

It could have been good - but when you can't determine what is real and what isn't to the point that you almost stop caring, it's not a good film overall.

And the ending?

*SPOILER ALERT*

A famous Lady Gaga type of person kills herself (or is killed by the demon inside) on stage, so now the world is infected - what?

Where are you gonna go with that?

Because now you've infected everyone, the world.

I hope you have a plan - because otherwise, you've written yourself into a corner, haven't you?

What's gonna happen in Smile 3, aliens come down and are infected by the demon? Bigfoot? 

Sigh.

Unless - the ending was a hallucination, too, is the only thing I can think of.

So Mark and I were talking about what is so scary about this series - and it's the soul-less, evil smile itself.

If you've ever been unfortunate enough to actually see a psycho smile like that, it's likely the scariest thing you've ever seen.

So we talked about whether we'd ever truly seen someone smile like that - like Jack Nicholson at the end of "The Shining" on steroids.

(In fact, Jack Nicholson's son, Ray, is in the film, channeling his dad's famous evil psycho "The Shining" smile.)

And I'm not talking about fake smiles, I'm talking about evil smiles.

I'm also not talking about mischievous grins.

Like when you say to your old-enough-to-know-better child, "Don't you pour that cereal bowl over in the floor" or "stop messing with your sister"- and they give you a mischievous grin and do it anyway 😂.  That's just normal boundary-testing.

I'm talking about a truly evil, psycho smile.

Mark said he has in the military a few times, but even that was rare - most just looked desperate - either fear or rage -  but actual evil smiling was rare, but he had seen it - and not just from the people he was fighting against. 

I've seen the "power smirk" on a few people, which some might call evil, when abusing their power over you or others - but a truly evil smile?

Only once.

So in the mid-90s, I was sitting at a red light, trying to turn left, where Pasadena Rd meets Clays Mill Rd, right in front of the Lexington Assembly of God church.

You know how you can feel someone staring at you?

I looked over to my right and some 60-year-old dude in a red Toyota sedan was just staring at me with a smile like this ...

Except - the guy was like 60, grayish with sunken eyes, like he had lung cancer or something.

Holy Mother of God, what the ???

What IS that, is that even human? 

Nope ... Boy, bye!😂

I immediately got chills/shuddered,  then put the pedal to the medal, despite the red light, and quickly drove away as far and as fast as I could! 😂

That's the thing in these movies - why do people wait around to see what will happen next? 😂

I don't know, maybe they're in shock, but if you ever see a smile like that -  like you're both stuck in the Andes after a plane crash and you're dinner, but you're not -  you better "nope" it right outta there! 😂

And it wasn't someone just messing with me -  why would an unhealthy-looking 60-year-old feel like riding around town with a smile like that just to frighten people for fun?

Later, I was like "Did that really just happen?  Did I fall asleep at the red light or something? Am I losing my sanity?"

No - I can't even fall asleep in the backseat or on a plane, or even my own couch, due to an anxiety disorder - unless I have a fever or when pregnant, but I wasn't - and though I have PTSD, I have never  actually hallucinated anything in my life.

I've seen a lot in life, I'd never seen anything like that.

I have no idea what his deal was - all I know is, I've never seen that kind of smile before or since - except in the movies!