Could Smile 3 Make Similar Mistakes as Another “Cursed” Horror Franchise?

WARNING: Spoilers for Smile and Smile 2 ahead.

The Smile franchise has quickly become one of the latest horror franchises to find success, grow legs, and terrify audiences in recent years. It spawned a sequel, released in 2024, that helped plant seeds for the future third entry in the franchise. It’ll also raised the stakes from one victim to many by exponentially upping the number of witnesses to the final murder, putting more people at risk than we’ve seen in either movie up to this point. Does this indicate a skyrocketing body count? A possible panic in the streets? Or is it an open door full of failure by the minds behind the franchise? While difficult to broach, we’ve seen this type of plot change sink many a horror movie in previous years. Some of these horror projects went from the great to the disappointing very quickly, and we’re hoping Smile doesn’t follow suit.

The ending of Smile 2 sees the main heroine, pop star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), take the stage for her big show at the Herald Square Garden and is soon left horrified after realizing the events of her day were an illusion created by the Smile entity (or “Smiler”) that has tormented victims in both films. In front of the massive crowd, she ends up confronted by the monster and gets possessed. After a few beats, she turns, smiling at the audience, and brutally stabs herself in the eye with her microphone.

It’s not only a far more brutal demise than Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) got in the first movie, but also dooms everyone watching Skye’s concert during the slaying.

In Good Company

Smile is right at home with similar movies released in the past decade. It Follows creates a similar tone for its story, where an unknown creature steadily follows its cursed victim until they are dead. Other similar films include Truth or Dare in 2018 and The Ring in 2002, adapting the original Japanese films and books. Both movies feature a seemingly invincible supernatural force that moves to kill its victim within a time frame. The Smile Entity acts as a parasite, wearing its victims down and feeding on them before moving to the next victim, similar to The Ring‘s Samara Morgan, who kills her victims 7 days after viewing her cursed video cassette. The only way to avoid your fate is to copy and show the videotape to someone else.

[RELATED – 7 Movies to Watch After Smile 2]

The Ring‘s third installment in 2017 is where fans of Smile seriously should take note. Much like Smile 2, Rings takes the rules set in the original film and expands them to affect a larger group of victims. In Rings, the cursed video from the original story ends up going viral and spreads through email. A similar thing happened in Truth or Dare back in 2018, where Lucy Hale’s Olivia uploads a video extending her game to everybody online and thus buying her more time to survive.

Smile 3 Needs to Pay Attention to Failed Franchises

With an entire crowd of victims created in Smile 2, any potential third entry will have to navigate these waters while keeping its predecessors in mind. Both Rings and Truth or Dare suffered critically and financially, crafting open-ended finales that played on the possibility of a sequel. Critics slammed Blumhouse Productions, calling it a “backwards stumble” for the company on the heels of Get Out or Happy Death Day. But Rings seemed to be hit harder by criticism, with only an 8% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Some called it a “botch job” and complained it rehashed old plot points while undermining the mythology established in the original films.

Both films felt flat and seemingly dashed any hopes for a sequel, unless you want to think about Fantasy Island as a pseudo-Truth or Dare sequel. Most won’t go for that, so the pressure is on for the filmmakers behind Smile to either hit the landing with its plot, taking the larger group of victims and using it to grow the franchise, instead of rehashing the first two films.

This extends to the promotion of the film, which also represents a stumble for Rings after the trailer gave away its big plot twist at the end of the film. It’s a road map for what to avoid when you’re making a new horror franchise; raising the stakes and lifting the bar for a sequel warrants a lot of care and attention, with fans always frothing at the mouth and waiting to unload if they’re left unhappy.

What Can Fans Expect From Smile 3?

Smile and Smile 2 director Parker Finn seems aware of this and revealed he has already started to work on the third entry, revealing the depth he seems willing to take the franchise.

“There was information I had for myself that wasn’t expressed in the first film that I took the opportunity to bring into the new one, so what Smile 2 is doing is showing us new things,” Finn told SFX Magazine. “We felt like we’d uncovered the mystery in the first one, but we’ve maybe only scooped a single glass of water out of the ocean.”

Finn also echoed this during a chat with Collider on a potential third movie.

“I think there are a lot of interesting roads that any future Smile could go down. For me, I love all the stuff that goes bump in the night, and all the really frightening things of the big concept of Smile and the Smiler,” Finn told the outlet. “But really, for me, Smile is a vehicle to tell really intense and hopefully thoughtful character stories, and so I’d wanna make sure, regardless of if more than one person might have it, that we still find a way to really invest intimacy into the storytelling. That’s super important to me. But I think there are some really interesting tricks still up the sleeves of Smile.”

So it is safe to say that Smile 3 has a long road to travel before it earns the same praise as its predecessors. Fans are sure to flock to see the film when it is finally released, but its success and future rely on avoiding the pitfalls of the past.

Smile 2 and the original film are available to stream on Paramount+, with the original film still holding a 79 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and the sequel improving on that, with critics calling it a success and praising star Naomi Scott. But the sins of those past films that earned comparisons, and the responses from some critics who felt the sequel closed the door on the franchise perfectly.

Will Smile 3 be a success, or is it destined to fall flat like Rings and other similar projects? Should the Smile franchise make a jump to a weekly TV format? Let us know in the comments.