Today during Paramount Pictures panel at Cinemacon, it was announced that a sequel to the hit 2022 horror film Smile is in development.
via MovieWeb:
Released last year, the first Smile is written and directed by Parker Finn and follows Sosie Bacon as Dr. Rose Cotter, who, after witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can't explain. As an overwhelming terror begins taking over her life, Rose must confront her troubling past to survive and escape her horrifying new reality. Directed by Parker Finn in his feature film debut and based on his 2020 short film Laura Hasn't Slept, Smile stars Sosie Bacon (Narcos: Mexico, Mare of Easttown), Jessie T. Usher (The Boys), Kyle Gallner (Scream), Caitlin Stasey (APB, Bridge and Tunnel), Robin Weigert (American Horror Story, Deadwood), Judy Reyes (Scrubs), Rob Morgan (Stranger Things), and Kal Penn (Harold & Kumar).
Smile was met with rave reviews from critics, who praised Sosie Bacon’s lead performance and the way that the movie uses the supernatural to explore the torment of trauma. The first outing also managed to what’s required to become the next big horror franchise: over perform at the box office. Smile saw huge financial success, grossing over $217 million worldwide against a $17 million budget. No doubt the studio is hoping for more of the same with Smile 2.
While details of what Smile 2 will involve remain a mystery at present, Smile director Parker Finn has previously how he plans to approach the horror follow-up. Though he made Smile with the intention of it being a standalone movie, he did intentionally leave some threads hanging just in case Smile became the next big horror franchise.
"I made Smile to, of course, be self-contained, tell its whole own story. I didn't think in a million years that there would be such a demand for a sequel,” the filmmaker explained. “But having said that, I think there are definitely things inside of the film that remain purposefully unexplored that would be very exciting to dive into, and also things that I didn't get a chance to do on the first one for either budget constraints or if it didn't quite fit in the story that I think would be really exciting.”
While we sit and ponder what might happen in Smile 2, Finn has also teased the “unexpected and surprising” way in which he will bring back the terrifying, mysterious entity. "I still feel that I never want to overtly just repeat myself or do the same thing I just did, but I think that there could be a really exciting way for there to be more in the world of Smile, but something very unexpected and surprising for an audience with a lot of tricks of its sleeves," he said.
With all the money the film made it shouldn't be a surprise that a sequel is in the works. While I loved the film's subject matter focused on mental health, the third act of Smile was a huge disappointment for me.
Hopefully the sequel will be better.
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