Worry, be happy: the Smile 2 trailer is here

It’s such a dangerous year to be a fictional pop star. While real-life idols like Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, and, in recent headlines, Oasis, continue to tour the world playing to thousands of screaming fans, their cinematic counterparts face a far darker fate. (Not that the real ones haven’t encountered their share of scary moments this year.) Earlier this summer, main pop girl Lady Raven was almost murdered by a serial killing Josh Hartnett in Trap. Now, her colleague Skye Riley must face down her own way-too-happy foe in Smile 2.

While a June teaser for the Smile sequel focused mainly on Skye’s (Naomi Scott) stage presence with a little horrifying face smashing on the side, the film’s full-length trailer goes hard on the scares. In fact, we barely see Skye in her pop star capacity at all, except for a brief appearance she does on The Drew Barrymore Show (including a fun cameo from Barrymore herself).  

Instead, we get a little more insight into how the entity will function during its second time around. As you may recall from the first film (spoiler alert, obviously), the horrifying fleshless demon behind the smile possesses people who’ve witnessed a suicide until they eventually succumb to the impulse themselves. The film is not being coy about the fact that the suicide of Skye’s high school friend, Lewis (Lukas Gage), was the impetus for her own haunting.

“How do we stop it?” the star asks a character played by Peter Jacobson, who seems to be something of an entity scholar. (“I’ve traced a string of deaths to you,” he says by way of introduction.) The answer is simple, he responds. “We need to kill you first.” This girl cannot catch a break!

Oh, and if you’re wondering how the new trailer measures up to that crazy bent-neck jump scare from the original, well… at least they tried. Smile 2 is out in theaters October 18.