Spoiler Warning: This article contains spoilers for Smile 2.
Writer/Director Parker Finn goes bigger and harder in every way when it comes to the horror in Smile 2. That includes the film’s finale, topping the original’s ghastly monstrosity reveal on a much larger scale.
The sequel follows global pop sensation Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), who begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events right as she’s preparing to embark on a world tour.
Smile 2, leaning harder into its R-rating this round, doesn’t waste any time addressing the fate of Joel (Kyle Gallner), the kind police officer who received the horrific curse at the end of Smile. Any hopes that Joel would take center stage in Smile 2 were quelled immediately with the hyper-violent opening sequence that saw his character suffer a rather gruesome demise, but not before passing his affliction to drug dealer Lewis Fregoli (Lukas Gage).
Finn told Bloody Disgusting that he did consider making Joel the lead of Smile 2, albeit very briefly. “I love Kyle Gallner,” Finn emphasizes. “I love working with him. He’s become an incredibly good friend. We chat all the time, and of course, there was a consideration about, ‘Oh, could the next film follow Joel?’ But when I was approaching the sequel, I wanted to make sure that anything that could have been a traditional or obvious continuation, I wanted to just cross that off the list. I didn’t want to do the expected thing; I didn’t want to take the easy route. I wanted to challenge myself to craft something that felt fresh and new, and that also had a new emotional thematic way in. I needed to find a character who felt like the right spine to hang the story on, which is how I developed the character of Skye Riley.
“But where the first movie ended, I wanted to make sure that there was the right amount of connective tissue between the two, and how do you get from a New York police detective to a New York City mega pop star? It felt really fun. Of course, because I like working with Kyle, I wanted to create this opportunity for this incredible bravura opening scene and give him the chance to really flex his acting chops. I think Kyle is such an incredible performer; it’s just the opening scene, but he did a lot of work to bring that to life, and I’m so proud of him.”
Kyle Gallner in Paramount Pictures Presents A Temple Hill Production A Parker Finn FIlm “SMILE 2”
While Smile 2 brings the bloodletting and brutality in unexpected ways, it builds to a jaw-dropping finale that sees Skye Riley’s curse culminate on stage in front of legions of fans. In a melding of epic practical effects and VFX, Skye observes the entity burst from her own body- a behemoth Monstrosity created by acclaimed creature effects designer Alec Gillis (Alien: Romulus, Smile) and his Studio Gillis team.
It was always part of Finn’s plans to make Skye’s ending as larger-than-life as the character. He explains, “I wanted to go much bigger. Actually, Alec told me it was the biggest creature they had done practically since the Alien Queen. It’s really big. It requires multiple performers inside of it, and there are a ton of puppeteers around it. It was so important to me to create this practical creature because I love practical effects. I know that VFX and CGI can be great tools, but I always want to make sure that if we’re using them, it’s a hybrid situation. That we’re putting as much in front of the camera as possible or creating practical elements to then visually comp in. But the development of it was really fun. It was all about, how does it come out? What is it doing? How are we taking it way over the top?”
“I knew I wanted to create this echo of an image from the original, but to dial it way up,“ Finn continues. “The original, we’re in this little dilapidated house in the middle of nowhere, no one else is around. This one, we’re on the main stage in front of 20,000 screaming fans, and I wanted to really lean into the showmanship of pop music with it and to create something that was really cosmically, just insane making, but also horrifying, but also gleefully absurd, and I love it. One of my favorite elements of it is Skye’s torso hanging off the backside of it, staring at us with a grin still. I think it’s such a fun image.”
Naomi Scott stars in Paramount Pictures Presents A Temple Hill Production A Parker Finn FIlm “SMILE 2”
With the massive success of both films, a third entry feels all but certain. While the filmmaker remains coy on whether he’d return for Smile 3, Finn does weigh in on where he’d like to see the franchise head in the future. Is the curse beatable?
Finn says, “You know, I created the curse, so I have a lot of thoughts about how potentially to beat it, but for me, I’m very much about the emotional, cathartic journey of the character, and it felt like this was such a perfect end for Skye Riley. But yes, I want to make sure that if Smile continues, I think it could grow larger and could go in so many different directions. What’s important to me is that while we have the Smile entity and the curse as sort of this throughline, the storytelling remains very intimate and personal and really about the characters. I think Smile’s at its best when the supernatural component is a slight push that causes the human horror to explode.
“That’s really important to me and something that I hope will continue with Smile.“
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