Smile 2 is hitting theaters and it follows Parker Finn’s hit 2022 horror film while focusing on an entirely new group of characters. Smile told the story of Rose (Sosie Bacon), a young woman increasingly convinced she was cursed. As it turns out, she was, by a demonic entity that possesses people and causes them to die by suicide. The end of that movie was bleak, with the demon ultimately jumping to a new host body in her friend, Joel (Kyle Gallner). Gallner is the only connection to the sequel, as he serves as the carrier to pass it to the new protagonist, Naomi Scott’s pop star Skye.
Otherwise, Smile 2 is populated by a whole new cast, and some of them have already perfected the series’ unsettling, creepy stare. People may have noticed from the trailers and promotional materials, that the specific “smile” referenced in the title is awfully…familiar. It’s been all over the marketing material and in the trailers. Heck, you might have even noticed it atop the Atom Tickets site as a banner. You know the one:
You may look at the person in the above picture and think, “Wait, I’ve seen that before… Isn’t that..?” before it hits you:
If you’re thinking the “smile” of Smile 2 looks an awful lot like Jack Nicholson’s Jack Torrance in The Shining, you’d be correct: that is exactly what look they were going for while shooting the horror sequel. In an interview with THR, writer-director Parker Finn explained that they embraced that sinister stare for the movie.
“I find what you want to do is smile actually in a friendly way; you don’t want to overexaggerate it, you don’t want to strain your face, but it’s all about disconnecting the eyes from the smile, and then about how you position the head. There’s a bit of a head tilt that happens; there’s the famous ‘Kubrick Stare,’ we sort of leaned into that idea, and then it becomes all about the filmmaking tools.“
The connection doesn’t end there, though. There’s something about the actor himself who so perfectly captures the visual spirit of not just the Kubrick Stare, but of Jack Nicholson himself. There’s a reason for that: the actor in question, Ray Nicholson, is Jack Nicholson’s son. As you can see, there is a lot of his dad in his looks:
He may not be the spitting image of Jack, but boy, it sure is close. Talk about the perfect casting: who better to carry on the legacy of the Kubrick Stare than the son of one of the actors who made it iconic? It’s great to see a new horror movie honor a classic in such a fitting way. If Smile 2 is as good as the first movie, audiences will be in for a fun – and terrifying – ride.
Get tickets to Smile 2, in theaters now
