Sometimes, something so simple can be so effective. What’s the scariest thing you can think of in the year 2024? Somebody you don’t know smiling at you. Because when a stranger starts smiling at you, it means that they want to 1) sell you something, 2) date you or 3) get you to join their cult, so it’s already a little offputting. Smile brought this fear to the next level by making smiling not only creepy but also deadly. And now those crazy smilers are at it again!
Smile follows a therapist named Rose who sees a disturbed patient who claims to be terrorized by a supernatural force that causes aggressive smiling (it’s scarier than it seems!) before brutally attacking. After the unexpected success of Smile’s test screenings, the film was released in theaters in 2022 and it grossed over $217 million worldwide. Naturally, Paramount was quick to order a sequel, which is due out later this year.
Here is everything you need to know about the upcoming sequel, which is currently untitled, so it could still be called Smil3.
Plot
According to footage reportedly shown at CinemaCon, the sequel will follow Naomi Scott as a pop star who begins to see some of her fans smiling a little too much. Very topical!
Even before the second movie was ordered, Director Parker Finn wanted to craft a story that would be significantly different than the first. “There is still a lot of interesting stuff to explore in the world of Smile,” Finn told The Hollywood Reporter in 2022. “There certainly are stones that I left unturned by design. And then there are other things that I, at one point or another, wanted to put in the movie, but they didn’t end up in the movie for whatever reason. So those things are still exciting to me, but if there’s more to be done with Smile, I would never want to just repeat myself or retread the same ground. I’d want to make sure that there’s a new, exciting, fresh way into it that the audience isn’t anticipating. I also want to find some new ways to scare them and unnerve them.”
Cast
Kyle Gallner will reprise his role from the first Smile flick, and no spoilers, but there was a bit of a cliffhanger that will likely be explored with his character. Naomi Scott, Rosemarie DeWitt, Lukas Gage, and Dylan Gelula will also star in the horror film.
Release Date
The Smile sequel is expected to hit theaters on October 18th, 2024, just in time for the MLB playoffs. This is important, because it means that we could be seeing the Smilers in real life again.
Trailer
The trailer has not yet been released online, but hopefully, we will get a teaser soon. Until then, you can stream Smile on Paramount+, Amazon Prime, or by looking in the mirror and smiling so hard you begin to lose your grasp on reality. Have fun!