Director Parker Finn opened up about Smile 2‘s terrifying hallway scene, which was created to look like a dance sequence. Since its theatrical debut, the Naomi Scott-led horror sequel has received a Certified Fresh score of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 195 reviews.
“About to embark on a new world tour, global pop sensation Skye Riley begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events,” reads the synopsis. “Overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and the pressures of fame, Skye is forced to face her dark past to regain control of her life before it spirals out of control.”
How Smile 2’s terrifying hallway scene was made
During an interview with ComingSoon, Finn revealed they worked with dance choreographer Celia Rowlson-Hawl to bring Smile 2’s terrifying hallway scene to life. He also recalled how it exciting it was to shoot the iconic sequence, and confirmed that everyone on set was impressed.
“This scene was fully choreographed. I worked with my choreographer, Celia Rowlson-Hall, and several of the troupe in there are from her backup dancers as well. So there’s that continuity,” Finn shared. “We always talked about it almost feeling like… I was curious to see if I could do something that felt just as much Hideo Nakata as it does Bob Fosse, you know? So we talked about like All That Jazz and that sort of thing.”
He continued, “But the trick of it was creating this red light, green light game that instantly the Smiler starts cheating at. So you can’t quite wrap your hands around the rules of it. The trick was that Naomi was at the center of this choreography, but for her, it needed to feel like she was just reacting and not performing the steps of what really is almost like a dance. I’m really excited about how it came together and how it starts playful and creepy but then takes this turn and becomes incredibly violating, violent, awful, and nightmarish.”
Smile 2 is once again written and directed by Parker Finn. The first installment was based on his 2020 short film Laura Hasn’t Slept. Additional cast includes Raúl Castillo, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Daphne Zelle, Zebedee Row, and A Nightmare on Elm Street alum Kyle Gallner. It is produced by Finn, Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey, Isaac Klausner, and Robert Salerno.