How Parker Finn Leveled Up the Gore in Smile 2 With "The Most Violent Things"

1 day ago 2

Smile 2

When it was revealed that Parker Finn would reteam with Paramount Pictures to bring audiences a follow-up title to his shocking 2022 horror flick, Smile, we knew a boatload of gore was on the way. Starring Sosie Bacon and Kyle Gallner, the original film was filled with buckets upon buckets of blood and even a dead cat in a box. With an expectation to go above and beyond the pearl-clutching moments of the debut movie, Finn got to work crafting a new story, fresh characters, and wildly inventive kills for Smile 2.

During a recent chat with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Finn shared his vision behind one of the most gruesome scenes not only in the Smile franchise but that we’ve seen in the genre in recent years. The sequence in question features Lukas Gage’s character Lewis, who, while staring down Naomi Scott’s Skye Riley, bludgeons himself to death with a weight plate. Admitting that the scene was one that he wasn’t certain he’d be able to get away with, Finn said:

“I will say that for me, I feel that what I did to the Lewis character, played by Lukas Gage, is certainly one of the most violent things I’ve ever done to a character. I knew that that was always going to be a bit of a parallel echo to the Laura character played by Caitlin Stasey in the first film. Caitlin uses this piece of broken pottery that’s very sharp, right? There’s a lot of slicing going on, and I was like, ‘I wanna go in the complete opposite direction with this. I wanna find the heaviest, bluntest, just worst thing you could hit yourself with.’ And I love this idea that Lewis’ character, when he is hitting himself with that, he sort of creates this game of peek-a-boo , where every time he hits himself, we have to wait to see how bad the damage is, the new damage that he’s done.”

Lukas Gage Set Up Camp in the Makeup Chair for 'Smile 2'

As Finn mentioned, each time Gage’s character, Lewis, smashes the weight into his face, he eventually lowers it to reveal the grotesque damage done to his moneymaker. As one could imagine, the makeup and effects team had their hands full on this one, with Finn revealing just how long the actor sat in the chair for his morbid makeover. He explained:

“It was this really exciting thing, and Lukas had to go through multiple rounds of practical prosthetic makeup, and then we had to tie all those together. He was such a trooper. He probably spent a total of over 12 hours in the chair between those three makeups. The final effect with just a tiny bit of VFX lift together with all those practical effects and the flowing blood, for me, that’s one of the more devastating things in the film.”

Smile 2 is now playing in theaters and you can watch Nemiroff's full chat with Finn below.