MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Following Smile, the 2022 breakout psychological horror hit, Smile 2 is pulling out all the stops. “The sequel goes bigger, it goes bolder,” promised writer, director, and producer Parker Finn. “It’s way more off the rails, it’s nastier, it’s bloodier. Everything you loved about the first film, we do that ten times bigger.”
In the Smile universe, the entity or curse transfers from one victim to another by taking control of the current host and compelling them to end their own life in front of a witness — while sporting a frighteningly creepy smile, an unsettling image that has now become iconic in the world of horror movies. That witness then becomes the next victim and once inside them, the entity infiltrates the crevices of the victim’s mind, weaponizing their thoughts against them and gradually exerting greater control over their reality, manipulating their perceptions and actions.
“We watched that happen in …