Pass It On! Star Rejoices About Sequel’s Confirmation with Us

Several 2023 films have gotten exciting updates at CinemaCon this year, but I’m here to discuss a 2022 film. Well, it’s a sequel. Smile, a supernatural horror film following a harrowing curse whose only purpose is to spread fear and pass it on, hit theaters in September last year and made more than ten times its small budget.

Now, Paramount confirms that the 2022 horror will get a sequel and that the studio is already going at it. Now that Smile 2 is greenlit and officially in the works, many fans of the one-hit wonder are rejoicing, including one of the film’s main leads. Kyle Gallner, who played Joel in the horror film, took to Twitter to celebrate the news. You can view his tweet below:

While Gallner is hyped for the sequel, he hasn’t given us any hints for his returns since even he doesn’t know if he’ll be in it or not. But here’s why I think his comeback is all but confirmed!

In the final scene of Smile, Rose succumbs to the curse that has been put on her since she saw Laura kill herself in front of her – but not before she passes on the curse to Joel.

Though the psychiatrist took precautions to ensure the curse will die with her, the mysterious entity drowned her in delusions and finally doomed her soul when she burned herself in her old house. Joel was the sole witness to the act – which, if you’ve seen the movie, you know means that he is the next target of this unyielding curse.

If you’ve seen films like The Ring, Truth or Dare, It, and It Follows, you know that these sorts of entities/curses are hard to eliminate. But unlike the films mentioned, Smile did not divulge into the origins or even the name of this entity but only addressed its nature and method of killing. 

If the sequel were to continue Joel’s story, the detective could unearth the entity’s history, trace it back to its origins and hopefully destroy it too. Of course, following the pattern, he’ll have a short time to do so –but Rose came so near to taking the thing down, maybe Joel might succeed fueled by avenging the love of his life/ex-girlfriend?

For now, I have no confirmed theories to give since the film was just recently greenlit. But Smile 2 should be hitting theaters in 2024, so be patient and stay tuned to Cine Dope for more news on this front!

About Smile

Smile is a 2022 American psychological horror film written and directed by Parker Finn (in his feature directorial debut), based on his 2020 short film Laura Hasn’t Slept. The film stars Sosie Bacon as a therapist who, after witnessing the bizarre suicide of a patient, goes through increasingly disturbing and daunting experiences, leading her to believe what she is experiencing is supernatural.

Directed by Parker Finn, the film also stars Jessie T. Usher, Kyle Gallner, Caitlin Stasey, Kal Penn, and Rob Morgan. The film received mostly positive reviews from critics, who praised the jumpscares, production values, and Bacon’s performance, though some noted the similarities to other horror media, such as It Follows and The Ring.

Source: Twitter