Upcoming Sequel of 2022’s Smile Gears up to Outshine the Original
The follow-up promises to put another smile on your face.
The year of 2022 was certainly fruitful for scary movie tales, as we saw such genre’s gems as Pearl, Barbarian, and Scream. However, the best jumpscare flick of 2022 is, undoubtedly, Parker Finn’s Smile that rekindled people’s love for such horrors.
Following a therapist who witnesses a bizarre suicide of her patient and later sees horrifying visions tormenting her, this movie became a worldwide commercial success. It managed to rake in more than 100x its budget of $17 million, grossing $217.4 million.
Such a success can be explained by the fact that Smile perfectly timed jumpscares with those sinister smiles and at the same time didn’t forget about exploration of the protagonist’s deep trauma, enhancing the audience’s feeling of discomfort and unease.
However, the recently unveiled trailer of its upcoming sequel teases us with a more curious premise. Smile 2 is going to center on a pop star who falls victim to an evil curse that drives people to suicide by haunting them with creepy smiley hallucinations.
The sequel’s premise deceived the expectations of the audience, but in a good way. “That’s different from what I thought it would be,” admits Redditor @chichris.
It didn’t turn out to be a similar story about an ordinary man confronting the same demon.
“I am so excited for this, I appreciate the concept of having a “bigger story” with a more public figure,” says @SnooHobbies9523 about it.
Indeed, unlike the first chapter, the follow-up’s trailer promises a larger scale, far more interesting visuals and twists.
Moreover, Smile 2 continues the current tendency to make horrors about fictional stars who end up tormented by evil. Both M. Night Shyamalan ’s Trap and Mia Goth-starring MaXXXine, which are coming to theaters already this summer, follow the same path.
The promising sequel’s cast assembles Naomi Scott (Anatomy of a Scandal) as the lead, Kyle Gallner (Scream), who’s going to reprise the role of Joel, a police detective from the original movie, Lukas Gage (Dead Boy Detectives ) and Rosemarie DeWitt (Poltergeist).
Smile 2 is scheduled to be released on October 18, but until then, you can check out the nail-biting original from 2022, as the first Smile movie is available on Netflix and Prime.