Smile 2 Footage Reaction: The Horror Sequel Terrorizes A Pop Star [CinemaCon 2024]

Filmmaker Parker Finn has experienced a career start that most can only dream of. After his 11-minute horror short "Laura Hasn't Slept" screened at SXSW 2020, Finn signed a deal with Paramount Pictures to adapt it into a feature-length film, "Smile," which stars Sosie Bacon as a psychotherapist who becomes targeted by a sadistic demon. After witnessing a patient's suicide, she's plagued by hallucinations of people she knows staring at her with very creepy smiles, and finds herself unable to trust anything she sees or hears.

"Smile" grossed more than $217 million at the box office, a massive success given its $17 million budget, and a sequel was soon greenlit, with Finn returning as writer and director. Kyle Gallner, whose character survived the last movie and was implied to be the demon's next target, has returned for "Smile 2," and is joined by new cast members Naomi Scott, Lukas Gage, Rosemarie DeWitt, Dylan Gelula, and Raúl Castillo.

Now, Paramount has offered CinemaCon 2024 attendees — including /Film's own Ryan Scott — a first look at the happy times to come in "Smile 2."

What better victim could the "Smile" demon hope for than a pop star who has to smile for the camera all the time? 

The teaser footage for "Smile 2" that played at CinemaCon 2024 was focused on the new character played by Naomi Scott (pictured above in 2019's "Charlie's Angels") — a music celeb whose glamorous world is about to get dragged to hell. After a few glimpses of her pop star performances, the footage showed Scott's character getting a shock when a man (played by Lukas Gage, who recently appeared in the "Road House" remake) breaks into her dressing room and smiles creepily at her. Elsewhere in the footage, she is confronted by a kid with braces who flashes her a similar malevolent smile.

Ryan Scott described the footage as being much "flashier" than the first film with a distinctly glitzier look, reflecting the fact that this time around the "Smile" story is being told through the lens of a global pop star (and also, perhaps, reflecting a bigger budget). Much like the camouflaging effect of the demon in "It Follows," I imagine that the smiling demon will be hard for a pop star to spot, since celebs tend be constantly surrounded by publicists, fans, and sycophants — all of them with great big smiles. 

Even more disturbing is the thought of why the demon is targeting Scott's character in particular. Could it be aiming to mass-infect the population with its influence by possessing someone who is always on camera?

We'll find out when "Smile 2" hits theaters on October 18, 2024.