What is the smile curse? How the evil entity works

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for Smile 2.Both smile And Smile 2Writer and director Parker Finn’s psychological supernatural horror movies center around seemingly innocent victims who are cursed by an evil entity that stalks and ultimately forces them to meet a gruesome end. Both chapters of the hit horror franchise are built on strong performances from their lead actresses (Saucy Bacon and Naomi Scott, respectively), and some of the best-executed jump scares in modern horror. However, by the end of Smile 2There are still many questions surrounding the entity that plagues the main character.

Heavy with themes of trauma, grief and addiction, the smile The franchise does a great job of providing enough background information about the evil entity at its center, while still leaving much of it unexplained. The sequel Smartly (and somewhat surprisingly) did very little to elaborate on the entity’s backstory from the first movie, contributing to Smile 2s stellar Rotten Tomatoes debut. This means that some of the most important elements of the entity and how it terrifies and ultimately kills its victims requires explanation.

The well-known story of the smile curse

Characters from both movies traced it back in time

While the true nature of the entity remains mysterious, characters in both smile And Smile 2 were able to Trace the chain of deaths around him to discover his nature and timeline from infection to death. The ER nurse that Naomi Scott’s character Skye communicates with Smile 2Morris (Peter Jacobson), mentions that he managed to trace it back through at least eight victims, including his brother. He shortlisted several, which include both Kyle Gallner’s Joel and Sosie Bacon’s Rose from the original smile.

In the original Smile, Kyle Gallner’s Joel, as a police officer, is able to trace a chain of suicides back with accompanying photos and security videos. Every victim of the smile curse saw another person committing a horrible suicide in front of themIn methods, from stabbing yourself with garden shears and cutting your own throat with glass, to other more inventive means. It operates like a parasite, feeding on a person’s fear and trauma until it mentally breaks them, at which time it latches onto a new host.

How the smile entity passes from one person to the next

Each potential employer needs to witness a specific traumatic event

The entity feeds on trauma, and Seems to target people who have been traumatized in their past (or present) as its victims. In order for the curse to pass from one person to another, the new host needs to see the current cursed host die, usually in a graphic manner. This creates the trauma that the entity feeds on, allowing it to discard the dead host and jump to its new one.

While the original smile Initially made as if it required a suicide to happen in front of a new boss, it was later revealed (and confirmed in Smile 2) that It can transfer after a new host witness any method of death – as long as it is traumatic. The trauma is the key; Watching a person pass away in their sleep would theoretically not allow the curse to pass, there has to be something shocking that will scar the witness. This explains the entity’s penchant for brutal suicide: it can create the traumatic event it needs.

How long someone with the smile curse will live for

Death comes shockingly fast to every boss

Both smile And Smile 2 Do that Death typically occurs within a week once a person is infected by the smile curseBut this does not necessarily mean that a person will last for seven days. It seems that most victims end up dying in at least four days, because it only takes that long for the entity to completely shatter the person’s mind with its horrifying visions and ever-smiling manifestations. It is difficult to put a precise time, because the audience is typically seeing things from the main character’s point of view, which is usually distorted by the entity.

How the smile curse chain can be broken

There are several theories, but none have been successfully carried out

Rose and Joel actually manage to track down someone who managed to break the curse smileOr at least, he found a way to pass it along to someone else. They visit the convicted murderer Robert Talley, who tells them that his murder was actually the way that saved him from the smile curse; By killing a person in front of a witness, the entity passed from him and latched onto the witness. The curse was not permanently broken in this instance, but it was at least passed along to a new person.

in Smile 2The ER nurse Morris, whose brother was killed by the entity, theorized that there was a way to permanently end the curse and destroy the entity. As it feeds on trauma and needs to jump from one employer to another, He believed that it would be destroyed if a host was killed in some way outside of the entity’s infestation. and forced suicide. He proposes stopping Skye Riley’s heart temporarily, effectively “killing” her while giving the entity no new host to jump to, which he believed would kill it.

However, the method never actually plays out, like smile 2′‘s big twist ending reveals that almost all of the events of the past few days, including Skye’s communication and tryst with Maurice, happened in her head just as the entity was set to take over her mind. therefore, It was never actually revealed if Morris’ method would have workedAnd the entity remains free to plague more victims.

The powers and hallucinations of the smile’s curse explained

The entity uses a combination of familiar tricks and new horrors

In his undisguised form that only his hosts can see, The Smile Entity manifests as a skinless, humanoid monster with many smiling mailers nested within each other.. It only reveals itself when it climbs inside its host, having broken their minds with its terrifying hallucinations. When it prepares its host for its entry, the entity haunts them with visions of normal people, sometimes even loved ones, who will not break a haunted, dark smile.

The entity has several tricks that it repeats, The most notable of which is impersonating people close to its victims. It gains their trust and peace before revealing itself through the evil smile, maximizing the fear and torment, and improving the anxiety and paranoia of the victim. As it slowly takes control of their mind, the entity can make them forget periods of time, take actions that they do not remember at all, and scare them so badly that they become sleep-deprived. All these tactics combine to make the person question their reality to the point of breaking completely.

Smile 2 Ends with a question about the level of power of the entity. It forces Skye to kill herself by jamming her microphone into her own eye while on stage in an arena packed with fans. The result is that Each of the thousands of witnesses to Skye’s suicide can now act as hosts for the entityAlthough it remains to be seen if it is capable of multiplying itself, or if it can possess multiple victims at once. Given the critical and commercial success of both smile And Smile 2It probably means that another smile Sequel may answer the question.