Would It Kill You To Smile 2? Writer/Director Returns With A Gorier Sequel

The premise of a trauma-driven supernatural entity infecting people and causing them to violently bludgeon themselves to death began in Parker Finn’s 2020 short film Laura Hasn’t Slept. It centers on the nightmares of Laura Weaver (Caitlin Stasey) featuring a smiling face, eventually forcing her into state of somniphobia (fear of sleeping).

This terrifying short was so well-received by the public, that it was adapted into the highest-grossing horror film of 2022 called Smile. It extended the idea of a malevolent “smile entity” which transfers to its next host by forcing them to watch an infected person kill themselves.

Smile 2 follows Skye Riley (Naomi Harris) a pop starlet staging a comeback tour after falling into the depths of addition, despair, and depression. Notably, Ray Nicholson (Jack’s Nicholson’s son) plays Skye’s boyfriend Paul who has one helluva smile closely resembling his father’s. You know what that means.

Parker Finn spoke with Creative Screenwriting Magazine about the “personalization” of the smile entity. “I think I’m always putting a lot of myself into my characters,” he says. In this case, it was Parker suffering from insomnia and anxiety. Since Smile isn’t an autobiography, Parker had to subsequently “depersonalize” his experience through the lens of the horror genre to tell his story. “That’s the feeling that I was chasing,” he continues.

What Is The Smile Entity?

The creepy, psychopathic smile that we often see in sinister horror characters serves as a dualling metaphor. Parker Finn believes that effective horror is a mirror to our collective anxieties. “You can create a metaphor and get people to look at the world in a different way.”

“I love when horror films take that metaphor and quickly land the plane so they don’t get totally swallowed up by it. It was designed to exploit everything going on inside Rose’s (Sosie Bacon) head; all of her fears and guilt.”

Finn reapproached the Smile 2 world completely differently to the original since Rose was the only character affected by the entity in this first film. Multiple people are afflicted in Smile 2. In Smile 2, Skye Riley presents an amplified version of the smile entity in more graphically shocking and brutal ways.

"The entity gets inside the cracks of your brain and uses all of the worst stuff in your head against you."

Therein lies the thematic core of the Smile universe whether it applies to Rose, Skye or Paul. Finn wanted to explore the concepts of how not trusting your own mind affects your mental health.

Creating Smile 2

The filmmaker aimed to shoot a film about human beings rather than a high concept horror. A pop star on a comeback tour presented a unique world for Smile 2 to inhabit. The psychological warfare inside Skye’s head had to stand on its own without the smile entity for the story to engage.

Parker likes things that go bump in the night, but also the “internal psychology of a character to make Smile 2 about the human horror.”

“I approach these films by subjectively tying the viewer to the main character to the point where they feel like they are inside of their shoes, almost like living inside of their head,” shares Finn.

Skye Riley illuminates the parasocial celebrity world where fans elevate pop stars to demi-god status and unwittingly become actors in their demise.

The aesthetics of Smile 2 are noticeably more vivid, lurid, and unsettling than the first film. There aren’t any hospital rooms or dank basements where drug addicts can detoxify. “We’re in this glitzy, glamorous, shiny world of a pop star. I want to take something that should be fun and aspirational and make it feel very cold, lonely and alien.”

The Pressures Facing Skye Riley

Skye is a human being with limits on how much superstardom weighs on her. She anxious and wallows in a lot of self-doubt and confusion. Does she deserve the god-like worship of her adoring fans? Her public-facing persona, where her every move is scrutinized, adds to her distressed emotional state.

“I wanted to go behind that velvet robe and dive into the real human being at the core of that,” explains Finn. “There’s this expectation for these stars to always be playing a character, always be performing, and greeting the world with a smile,” he shares. “But behind all of that, I want to know what would it be like for these stars that we lift up, only then to potentially consume them.”

“Skye is quite emotionally fragile and harbors certain secrets, guilts, and depressions. I wanted the character to be relatable to audiences so hopefully they can find things in her that they could identify with,” he adds.

Being a celebrity often means being defined by others and trapped in an inauthentic persona. Skye is suffering an identity crisis she seemingly can’t escape. There are scenes where audiences are unclear whether she’s hallucinating or experiencing the effects of the smile entity.

Doing Horror Parker Finn Style

Finn’s intention for the audience for the film was clear. “Smile 2 is designed to freak an audience out, make them jump and scream, and hopefully get underneath their skin and linger with them after they leave the theater.”

Parker also strategically infuses Smile 2 with more dark humor than the first movie. “I want to catch people off guard with some of the absurdity in the film.”

“It is an incredibly anxious, sweaty film, but I wanted it to not only feel like horror, I wanted it to feel like an event film. And then there is the musical component.”

Parker Finn describes the tonal amalgam in Smile 2 as Kiyoshi Kurosawa meets Bob Fosse.

Despite three films, the origin and mission of the smile entity are still largely unknown in Smile 2. Finn may reveal more clues as the franchise progresses. Or not.

“I find that sometimes when entities, monsters, and curses become overexposed, overexplained, given a name and a backstory, it can defang them. I find that the fear of the unknown is way more frightening than anything else,” explains Finn.

“I also love that the way this thing works, because it’s this trickster; a mean-spirited thing that’s quite elusive.”

Audiences discover some additional things the smile entity can do during Smile 2. “I want to give them enough to keep them coming along and wanting more. I think craving more is really important,” he mentions.

“And if I’m going to dole out a breadcrumb or close a door, I want to make sure that two more open and continue to wrap it in an enigma,” Finn continues.

“The exposition is never the thing that I’m ultimately most interested in. I want to make sure that it doesn’t overwhelm the character or story that I’m telling.”

Writing Scary Scenes

The scares for Parker Finn start on the page. He strategically uses white space and unusual formatting to mimic the emotional experience he wants the reader to feel. He first asks himself what would scare him. It could be an image, a feeling, or a situation. Then he fleshes out that idea into a fully-fledged scene. What he writes reflects the experience of the scene.

"How do I turn left and catch audiences off guard? I love being able to use their expectations against them."

“I find that it’s in the edit is where the scare really comes to life, because you have to dial it in with timing, pacing, cutting, or sound… And trying to make sure that they always feel fresh and stepping up from other scares.”