By Garry Maddox
Parker Finn is not sure exactly when Hollywood executives starting using the word “franchise” after the breakout success of his horror film Smile two years ago, but he remembers when they mentioned “sequel”.
“The studio said ‘you’ve opened up the opportunity to create a sequel’,” the rising American writer-director said. “[But] I’m somebody who can be quite sceptical of sequels. I think they’re often made for the wrong reasons.”
Characters smiling freakily before dying was “a very effective marketing tool to get people into the theatres”: Writer-director Parker Finn.Credit: Nick Moir
Finn, 37, has been in Australia this week launching Smile 2, a sequel he has described as “way more off the rails, it’s nastier, it’s bloodier” than the low-budget original that took almost $US220 million ($328 million) around the world.
So how do you create a horror sequel and set up a popular franchise that runs, like the Saw films from Australians Leigh Whannell and James Wan, for years leading up to Halloween?
The first Smile, about therapist Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) being tormented by strange visions, had the catchy visual element of characters smiling freakily before dying.
Finn said the smile was “a very effective marketing tool to get people into the theatres” but he loved seeing how audiences engaged with the character and themes.
The second film, which reportedly has almost twice the budget at $US28 million, centres on famous pop star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott from Aladdin) seeing similar dark visions while making a comeback from a devastating car accident.
“Any early ideas that came to me, I threw away immediately because they came too fast,” Finn said. “That means it’s too obvious, right? It was the discovery of the character of Skye Riley and this world of a mega pop star that really got me so excited to dive back in.”
Finn thinks a sequel - and every subsequent film in a franchise - has to stand on its own feet rather than seeming like it is part of a bigger narrative.
“Each story should feel wholly cathartic,” he said. “Horror films are a bit like rollercoasters. It’s a brief encounter with danger, and you then get to walk out of the theatre and go about your life. But you get that catharsis and that jolt from it that’s so exciting.”
Naomi Scott as pop star Skye Riley in Smile 2.Credit: Barbara Nitke
Finn said the aim of each instalment should be to over-deliver on expectations.
“Do something that builds upon where you were but also is taking it in new and hopefully more intense and bigger directions,” he said. “I’m my first audience member for my own films so how I build them is I think about what’s really exciting to me, what’s really scary to me, what would I want to see if I’m in the theatre.”
So, does he have ideas already for future sequels?
“There’s a lot of really intriguing roads that Smile could go down,” he said. “I’d want to make sure that it stays fresh and unexpected … but right now I’m just really excited to see how audiences respond to Smile 2.”
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