Following the critical and commercial success of Smile in 2022, writer/director Parker Finn knew that if he was going to make a sequel, it had to be an “insane” idea.
Centering on a global pop sensation, Skye Riley (played by Naomi Scott), who begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events ahead of a world tour, Smile 2 takes the horrific curse from the original and goes global. Overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and the pressures of fame, Skye is forced to face her dark past to regain control of her life before it spirals out of control.
As the film arrives in theatres, Parker jetted to Australia to attend the Premiere at this year’s SXSW Sydney Screens Festival, sitting down with our Peter Gray to talk about when he knew the had found the right premise for his sequel, the music writing process that helped inform the narrative, and how he executes the perfect jump scare.
I was meant to go to SXSW in 20202, and obviously that didn’t go ahead, but I managed to see a lot of the films, and Laura Hasn’t Slept was one of them. I remember thinking “I wish there was more of this!” Then I saw the trailer for Smile, saw Caitlin Stasey, started putting it all together. It was so awesome to see that short film become Smile, and then build upon it with Smile 2. You spoke about that you’ve always got to do a film for yourself first (as a director), and if any idea come to you too quickly, it’s probably not the one you’re going to explore. When did you know that grief, trauma, the idea of a pop star and all that opportunity that opens up from that is the idea you wanted to explore?
Well, you know, I had been sort of thinking of when it became clear that audiences were really connecting with the first Smile, and an opportunity to potentially do a sequel (came) I wanted to make sure…you know, I can be very skeptical of sequels. I think sometimes sequels are made for the wrong reason. I always think they should be made with the same thoughtfulness and love as the original, which doesn’t always happen. But in that first month of throwing ideas out, because they were all happening too quickly, exactly as you just said, when the idea of centering it on a pop star first occurred to me, I thought “That’s insane.” It then just stuck in my brain. It wouldn’t go away. It started growing and magnifying, and it felt like this bolt of lightning, and I got obsessed with it. I went to the studio and pitched it, and I think they were very surprised. But to their credit, they got behind it. And the discovery of Skye Riley as a character really drove everything.
Speaking of lightning, Naomi Scott in this? This is one of those horror performances where it’s just her whole body is in this. I know some of the songs were written before she came on, but how many of the songs informed the story? When you listen to the lyrics, some of them are almost spoilers. How many were written before she came on board? And did Naomi help with tailoring the songs to her voice and her character?
After I had written the script I started reaching out to music producers and songwriters. I had created this really detailed brief of what I was trying to capture, and then I started getting sent demos, like hundreds and hundreds of demos from all different artists looking to find a sound that we could then grow upon for the film. There’s five original songs. One is by this producing duo, Take A Daytrip, which is “Grieved You”, which is our big music video song that we start with. That had started as a demo that we then developed with those producers really driving it.
Then the other four were produced by Alexis Idarose Kesselman. She’s so unbelievably talented, and she was trading ideas back and forth, and had created the sounds for a few of the songs. She was dancing around some lyrics, and I giving her some thoughts about how we could really lean into lyrics that felt thematic, but also pop. That was the big challenge. By the time Naomi came on, we already had three of the songs locked in, but Naomi brought a lot of herself to them. The final two songs I got Naomi and Ida Rose together, and, you know, Naomi is an amazing artist, and they worked really well together. It was so fun to be on the periphery of that brain trust as these songs were developing. But yeah, Naomi really brought the persona of Skye to life.
And obviously we get jump scares in these movies. The first one had what I would call “the laptop scare.” This one, we get “the phone.” And that’s all I’ll say. How do you know when you’ve executed a good jump scare?
Well, it starts on the page. And going into production with a really strong plan of how to capture these moments, knowing that I want to be able to give myself a little bit of optionality in the edit. Really, where the scare comes to life is in the edit. So, the challenge then becomes when myself and my editor, Elliott Greenberg, we get so close to the movie that a good scare becomes like a good joke, but once you’ve watched it 50 times, it’s no longer funny, right? So you need to sort of test it out on other people. It’s really about dialing it in. Finding where the rhythm is expected. How can we disrupt what people are used to? I think people have gotten so inundated with tropey jump scares, and I’m always trying to subvert that and do things that will catch people off guard. It’s about fine tuning in the edit, and we’ll bring in other members of the post team and sit them down. They’re all very nervous when we do this, because they know that we’re going to test out a jump scare.
Well, I think you’ve mastered it.
Smile 2 is now screening in Australian theatres.
