Smile 2 director thinks horror franchise can explore 'different kinds of diverse stories'

'Smile 2' filmmaker Parker Finn thinks the horror franchise can "tell all different kinds of diverse stories".

The 37-year-old writer and director - who also penned the original 2022 film and was at the helm of both movies - has high hopes for the series and thinks if fans react well to the upcoming sequel, there is a lot they can do in the future.

He told The Hollywood Reporter: "There’s so many exciting roads that 'Smile' could go down.

"We’ll have to see how audiences react to 'Smile 2', but I think that’s what’s great about 'Smile' is there’s an opportunity to tell all different kinds of diverse stories and sort of place ourselves in different worlds that Smile then comes in and invades.”

For the second film, the story follows fictional pop star Skye Riley, which was an idea Finn became "obsessed" with.

He recalled: "The first month that I started thinking about a sequel, any idea that came to me I just threw out right away because I was like if it’s coming to me this quickly, it’s too obvious.

“I love the world of pop. I’m fascinated by some of these women — these personas out there, who the real person is behind that velvet robe.

"And one I sort of stumbled on this idea of this mega pop star in Skye Riley, I just got kind of electrified by it and got obsessed with it.”

In the new movie, Naomi Scott plays the pop star terrorised by an entity which appears as people's sinister smiles.

However, Finn has pointed out that part of making the creepy grin work is to make sure it stays relatively natural.

He explained: “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 [of framing and sound design]."