From Ryan Cordaro

I’m not sure how it lined up this way, but we have back-to-back pop singer-centric horror movies coming out. Last month, we got M. Night Shyamalan's Trap, which ended up being a whole lot of fun. They ended up releasing a whole album to go with the pop star of that movie, Lady Raven, and the music ended up being really good for that. For Smile 2, the sequel to the surprise 2022 horror hit, they’re taking a similar approach. The first single for the fictional pop star for the movie was in the first trailer and has been on streaming since then, and it’s a good song too. Hopefully, the surprise of a good song can match a good movie.

Smile 2 will be a sort-of standalone sequel to the first. Skye Riley, a pop superstar, starts to experience disturbing events as she is about to embark on a world tour and is forced to face her dark past to regain control of her life before it spirals out of control. The writer/director of the first film, Parker Finn, returns to direct as well as Kyle Gallner, who’s the only actor from the last movie to return for its sequel. It isn’t known how big of a role he has, and he doesn’t appear in this trailer, but I’m assuming that he’ll pop up at some point to explain his experiences with the Smile Demon. I thought that the first one was surprisingly good, as the trailers really didn’t do too much for me with the first, so I hope this lives up to it.

Smile 2 stars Naomi Scott (Aladdin, the upcoming Wizards!), Rosemarie DeWitt (The Boys, Rachel Getting Married), Kyle Gallner (Strange Darling, Scream), Lukas Gage (Euphoria, Road House), Miles Gutierrez-Riley (The Wilds, the upcoming Agatha All Along), Peter Jacobson (Fly Me to the Moon, House), Raúl Castillo (Army of the Dead, Cha Cha Real Smooth), Dylan Gelula (Hacks, Dream Scenario), and Ray Nicholson (Licorice Pizza, Promising Young Woman).

Paramount will release Smile 2 in theaters on October 18th, 2024.

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