MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Following Smile, the 2022 breakout psychological horror hit, Smile 2 is pulling out all the stops. “The sequel goes bigger, it goes bolder,” promised writer, director, and producer Parker Finn. “It’s way more off the rails, it’s nastier, it’s bloodier. Everything you loved about the first film, we do that ten times bigger.”
In the Smile universe, the entity or curse transfers from one victim to another by taking control of the current host and compelling them to end their own life in front of a witness — while sporting a frighteningly creepy smile, an unsettling image that has now become iconic in the world of horror movies. That witness then becomes the next victim and once inside them, the entity infiltrates the crevices of the victim’s mind, weaponizing their thoughts against them and gradually exerting greater control over their reality, manipulating their perceptions and actions.
“We watched that happen in the first film, and I wanted to find new ways to trick both Skye and the audience,” said Parker.
The gore and the scares are not the only things bigger about the sequel. Smile 2 tells the story of Skye Riley, played by Naomi Scott, a global pop sensation about to embark on a world tour. The stage (literally) is bigger, the stakes are higher. As Skye begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events, the pressures of fame and her upcoming tour intensify.
For the role of Skye, Parker and his team needed someone with an incredible amount of range — someone who could embody a megawatt public persona while simultaneously exposing their private, vulnerable self, and also have the chops to sing and dance like an artist who can sell out stadiums. And they found their perfect Skye in Naomi Scott (Aladdin, Charlie’s Angels). “She can do everything,” Finn said.
“What I love about Parker was how confident the filmmaking was,” said Naomi. “It really does run the gamut of a more internal movie to just being completely unhinged.”
Producer Wyck Godfrey says that Smile 2 continues the same twisted and terrifying narrative of the first film while raising the stakes to an even more devastating level. “Parker designed Smile to be experienced entirely through Rose’s (main character in the first film, played by Sosie Bacon) point of view. As a result, every element of the look and feel of the film stemmed directly from that character,” shares Wyck. “Smile 2 takes a similar approach but with a troubled, world-famous pop star in Skye at the center, it’s all turned up to 11.”
Smile 2, distributed in the Philippines by Paramount Pictures through Columbia Pictures, is rated R-18 and will haunt Philippine cinemas — uncut — starting October 16. Join the conversation with the hashtag #Smile2 #SmileMovie and tag @paramountpicsph.
