Did you notice the strange smiling woman in the crowd at the VMAs?
Smile 2 opens in theaters on October 18th and it looks like the viral marketing for the horror sequel may have begun in what could be the most appropriate way possible: at the MTV VMAs. On Wednesday, the 2024 VMAs took place and fans watching the awards at home noticed something a little unusual — and creepy — at one point during the broadcast when the camera pans to the crowd in attendance there’s a moment when, standing among the cheering fans during LL Cool J’s performance is a woman who is standing very still and has a super creepy and disturbing smile on her face, just like the disturbing smile seen in the promos for Smile 2. You can check the moment out, as shared by a fan on social media, below.
lol Smile 2 promo at the #VMAs pic.twitter.com/pFZW24JrTG
— Adam Graham (@grahamorama) September 12, 2024
The idea of Smile 2 kicking off its viral marketing campaign at the VMAs is actually pretty perfect when you consider the plot of the film. In Smile 2, pop star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) is about to set off on a world tour when she begins to experience increasingly terrifying inexplicable events. 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. With Skye being a pop star, it is just too perfect that the marketing would kick off during an event that honors the best in music as voted on by fans.
Kicking off a viral marketing campaign for Smile 2 at MTV’s VMAs also makes sense for another reason. Smile 2 is distributed by Paramount Pictures — director Parker Finn has a first-look deal with Paramount. Pictures — and Paramount is the parent company for MTV. Paramount using one of its own networks to promote a film it is distributing is just good, well, synergy.
As for Smile 2, the film recently got a new trailer that sees Scott’s Skye go to extreme lengths to avoid the terrifying smile phenomenon as well as an unsettling poster. The film comes two years after Smile became something of a sleeper hit for Paramount. Finn previously told ComicBook that he never expected Smile to become a franchise and that the success of the first film was a surprise.
“I made Smile to, of course, be self-contained, tell its whole own story,” Finn said back in 2022. “I didn’t think in a million years that there would be such a demand for a sequel. But having said that, I think there are definitely things inside of the film that remain purposefully unexplored that would be very exciting to dive into, and also things that I didn’t get a chance to do on the first one for either budget constraints or if it didn’t quite fit in the story that I think would be really exciting.”
He continued, “I still feel that I never want to overtly just repeat myself or do the same thing I just did, but I think that there could be a really exciting way for there to be more in the world of Smile, but something very unexpected and surprising for an audience with a lot of tricks up its sleeves.”
Smile 2 opens in theaters October 18th.
