Smile 2’s Latest Trailer Is About the Terror of Pop Stardom

Paramount has released a new trailer for Smile 2, the upcoming sequel to 2022’s memetic horror movie, Smile. Dive in, below:

According to the film’s official synopsis, the story concerns “global pop sensation Skye Riley,” as she “begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events. Overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and the pressures of fame, Skye is forced to face her dark past to regain control of her life before it spirals out of control.”

As the trailer details, Riley (Naomi Scott) inherits the transmissible smiling curse from a wealthy high school friend (Lukas Gage) who owns both a framed squirt gun collection and no less than two astronaut-themed pinball machines. This comes at the worst possible time, since, as Skye reveals on The Drew Barrymore Show, she’s about to embark on the second half of a world tour. Given her celebrity, the smiling ghouls she’s suddenly hounded by are interpreted as overeager fans by her clueless manager (Rosemarie Dewitt). Luckily, Riley has an ally in Morris (Peter Jacobson), a kooky expert on the phenomenon who claims to have traced the string of deaths directly to her.

Co-starring Kyle Gallner, Dylan Gelula, Raul Castillo and Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Smile 2 promises to reveal more about the origin of the mysterious grinning entity while providing salient commentary on the nature of celebrity. Following Trap, this is the second major horror film of the year focusing on a female pop star with an online media presence and original songs written for the movie’s advertising campaign–a trend we sincerely hope continues. In a musical climate currently dominated by the likes of Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo, Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, and more, as well as the zealotry of fandom and the nature of its parasocial relationship with these artists, it’s practically the duty of the horror genre to explore this, and we hope Smile 2 is able to rise to the occasion. We’ll all find out together when it reaches theaters this October 18. 

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