The Smile sequel debuts Oct. 18
Pop superstar Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) is the latest trauma-burdened victim in Smile 2, the sequel to Parker Finn’s 2022 horror film. The new trailer erupts with the screams from high school friend Lewis (Lucas Gage), who after running from a creature only he can see, puts on a uncanny grin and slams his face with a weightlifting plate.
Meanwhile, as globetrotting pop star Skye snaps pictures with fans, appears on The Drew Barrymore Show, and performs for a rapturous crowd, she can’t escape the Cheshire cat-like smile that appears on the faces of fans and friends.
“I’ve traced a string of deaths to you,” a confidante tells Skye in the trailer. “No one has survived longer than a week.”
In the Finn-directed Smile sequel, Skye is embarking on a global tour, but the pressures and horrors of fame overwhelm her. In an attempt to regain her sanity, she must face her dark past.
In the original Smile, therapist Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) faces a similar fate. Rose watches her own patient put on a menacing grin and take her own life, before the phantom-like figure takes on the appearance of others and warns the doctor that she is the next one to die. The film, with a $17 million budget, grossed more than $217 million globally, according to Box Office Mojo. Its success can be partially attributed to how the arthouse horror “balances psychological shock therapy with old-fashioned fright, shadowy dread with blunt splatterfest FX, an artsy-fartsy sense of stylistics slapped on to a twisty B-movie scenario,” as Rolling Stone’s David Fear described in his review of the film.
The cast of the Paramount Pictures film sequel includes Rosemarie DeWitt, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Peter Jacobson, Ray Nicholson, Dylan Gelula, Raúl Castillo, and Kyle Gallner.
The horror flick debuts Oct. 18.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
