Smile 2 it copied the ending of the first film in a major way. The first Smile The film was released in 2022 and grossed US$217 million at the worldwide box office on a budget of just US$17 million. Therefore, Smile 2 was quickly confirmed. While 2022 Smile followed Rose, a psychiatrist who began having terrifying visions after witnessing a brutal death, Smile 2 took a different direction and focused on Skye, a famous pop star. However, while Rose and Skye’s lives couldn’t be more different, their arcs throughout Smile and Smile 2 are very similar.
Both Smile The films are written and directed by Parker Finn, who has emphasized the theme of trauma throughout the horror series. The mysterious entity Smile likes to latch onto people with traumatic pasts and feed on them. This makes Rose and Skye tragic characters in the Smile franchisewhich is why the key death scenes at the end of Smile and Smile 2 are presented in very similar ways.
Smile 2 doesn’t explicitly show Skye’s death scene
Thousands of Skye’s fans watch her die
In Smile 2Finn gives the audience hope that Skye can defeat the Smile entity and free herself from the curse that is infecting her mind. Skye meets with Morris at Smile 2, who claims to know how to kill the entity Smile. Morris’s thesis is that the Smile entity will die if its host dies before it finishes infecting its mind. Therefore, he wants to trap Skye in a freezer, as the colder temperature will delay any brain damage before Morris can revive her, following the death of the Smile entity.
Unfortunately, Skye and Morris’ attempt to kill the Smile entity turns out to be one of Skye’s hallucinations in Smile 2.
Eventually, Skye agrees to Morris’ plan and finds him at an abandoned Pizza Hut. Unfortunately, Skye and Morris’ attempt to kill the Smile entity turns out to be one of Skye’s hallucinations in Smile 2. At the end of Smile 2Skye ends up performing in front of thousands of fans and brutally kills herself on stage.
However, Smile 2 the ending focuses on the crowd’s reaction to Skye’s death. Viewers of the film can hear what is happening through the microphone, but only see the aftermath of the death. This is similar to Rose’s death during the end of the first Smile film. In the first SmileRose can only be seen burning through the eyes of Joel, to whom the Smile entity next attaches.
Why do the Smile movies end by showing other people watching Rose and Skye’s deaths?
The Smile entity wants to link itself to more victims
Not showing Rose and Skye’s death in the Smile the franchise perfectly reflects the strategy of the Smile entity, which attaches itself to new victims after making them witness a horrible and traumatic death. In a way, both Smile and Smile 2 breaking the fourth wall by not showing Rose and Skye’s death to viewers, as the real-life audience is spared the curse. However, observers who watch their deaths in the film are not spared from the cursethen the camera focuses on them as they watch the terrible event happen.
After watching Rose burn Smilethe curse is passed on to Joel. Smile 2 begins with Joel trying to pass the curse on to a criminal. However, his plan fails and he also ends up dead. Therefore, based on the franchise rules, the end of Smile 2 suggests that everyone in the crowd at Skye’s concert will now be corrupted by the entity Smilewhich significantly raises the stakes for a potential Smile 3.
Seeing Skye and Rose’s deaths would make the Smile movies darker
Neither Rose nor Skye defeat the Smile entity
Both Smile the films are already very dark. All over Smile and Smile 2the audience is hopeful that Rose and Skye can defeat the Smile entity. However, both films end with the tragic deaths of the main characters. Explicitly showing Rose and Skye’s deaths to the public would make the films even more desperate. Since the entity Smile wants to traumatize observers as much as possibleforces Rose and Skye to end their lives in horrific ways, so it’s probably best that those deaths aren’t shown.
Watching Rose and Skye experience terrifying visions throughout Smile and Smile 2 it makes viewers sympathize with them. Because viewers feel so attached to these characters at the end of each film, allowing their death scenes to happen off-screen saves the audience from even more heartbreak and horror. However, others seeing Rose and Skye’s deaths means the Smile entity is still alivewhich guarantees that both Smile and Smile 2 are still very depressing and hopeless horror films.