A Cirque du Soleil Performance from Hell: How ‘Smile 2’ Became a Musical
When writer/director Parker Finn made the inventive and terrifying horror film “Smile” in 2022, he never intended it as the beginning of a franchise. “I wrote that film to be self-contained and its own cathartic story,” Finn told IndieWire. “Also, I’m not nearly a big enough egotist to think that people were going to want a sequel.” Finn says he never thought of himself as a “sequel guy” anyway. “I think a lot of sequels get made for the wrong reasons and are incredibly cynical.”
Yet now Finn has made not only one of the best sequels in recent memory but one of the best horror films period, a rare follow-up that expands upon and deepens the mythology of its predecessor — think “Aliens” or “Terminator 2.” “Smile 2” retains the core concept of the original film, in which an unstoppable supernatural force travels from person to person and ultimately drives each of them to suicide, but it adds a whole new layer in the form of heroine Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), a pop star whose presence turns “Smile 2” into something completely unexpected: a full-on musical.
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For Finn, Bob Fosse and “All That Jazz” were as influential on “Smile 2” as Stanley Kubrick and “The Shining.” “I love choreography,” he said. “I’m not a dancer myself, but I love it on film, and this felt like a really unique opportunity to do what I do but also scratch that itch.” Indeed, some of the most horrifying moments in “Smile 2” come when the conventions of the horror film and the musical merge, as in a sequence where Riley’s backup dancers pursue her through her apartment in a variety of dance poses that echo what we’ve seen them do in earlier set pieces, but with a threatening twist.
“I wanted to create something that felt like a Cirque du Soleil performance from hell,” Finn said, noting that he worked closely with choreographer Celia Rowlson-Hall to find the intersection between elegance and terror in the dancers’ movements. “She’s done everything from avant-garde art house and experimental performances to Old Navy commercials, so she has a broad, impressive ability to do almost anything.” For the sequence in Riley’s apartment where her support team suddenly turns into a gang of stalkers, Finn was after something beyond typical horror. “I wanted it to feel like a performance piece with Skye as the unwitting center.”
Part of the reason that sequence and all the other horror set pieces in the film work so well is that Finn completely immerses us in Riley’s world as a pop star. Even without the supernatural component, her life is anxiety-inducing, and among other things “Smile 2” is the best film since Bradley Cooper’s “A Star is Born” about the unsettling nature of life in the spotlight; like Cooper, Finn is brilliant at conveying the constant back-and-forth between cacophony and dead silence that characterizes existence as a celebrity.
To create that environment, Finn took a deep dive into everything he could find about pop stars, like the one played by Scott. “I watched every documentary I could get my hands on,” he said. “I read every article, interview, and essay, because I really wanted to live in that world and understand it and present something that felt credible. I didn’t want to do something that felt tacked on or on the periphery.” Using a combination of influences, including OIivia Rodrigo, FKA Twigs, and Rihanna, Finn created a completely convincing look and sound for Skye Riley.
“It became a major priority to do something that almost blurred the lines between fiction and reality,” Finn said. “With everything from the songs to the behind-the-scenes stuff of a pop star’s life, I wanted to present something that hopefully felt authentic.” Using that authentic backdrop as the jumping-off point for a film even more jammed with chilling imagery and troubling psychological horror than the original is what gives “Smile 2” its completely unique tone and powerful effect — it’s part anthropological document, part terror flick, and part musical, and all three components complement each other beautifully.
So where does Finn go from here? He’s currently in prep on a remake of Andrzej ?u?awski’s “Possession,” a film that IndieWire critics just happened to name the best horror film of all time in a recent article. Finn knows he’s got big shoes to fill, but hopes that he can deliver the goods for fans of the original — especially since he’s one of them. “I adore that movie. It’s one of my favorite films of all time,” Finn said. “My goal is to make something that truly honors the original but feels more like a spiritual sibling that’s in dialogue with it. Something that maintains the teeth and ferocity and insanity of the original — I’m not trying to make any kind of sanitized Hollywood remake at all. This movie is going to be incredibly squirm-inducing and horrifying.”
As for the future of the “Smile” franchise, with or without Finn at the helm, the director is guardedly optimistic. “I think that, were ‘Smile’ to continue, I would want to make sure that it’s shepherded in a way that stays thoughtful and that the intimacy and character-driven nature of these stories stays front and center,” he said. “I feel that ‘Smile’ should always have something on its mind — personally, I don’t think scary smiling people have enough mileage to go on forever. The whole point is that the supernatural element is really about exploring the human condition. To me, that would be important — I want to make sure that there’s real inspiration moving forward.”
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