Editor's Note: This article does contain spoilers for the end of Smile 2

Summary

Smile 2 joined classic horror franchises due to innovation in antagonist presentation and unexpected endings.
Classic horror franchises need unseen elements and villains that surprise, like in Scream, Halloween, and Smile.
Ending where the villain wins and the heroes lose makes Smile unique, enticing audiences to root for the heroes.

While there are dozens of horror movies released every year, very few ever reach the level of "classic." However, it looks like the Smile franchise has managed to do just that thanks to its sequel being one of the most critically and financially successful horror films of the last few years. The original film was plenty popular. It offered up a monster that likes of which moviegoers haven't ever really seen before. But Smile 2 took it to another level. Obviously, in order to have a franchise, a story has to have more than one movie but there's more than just having multiple movies in order to make this a classic horror franchise.

Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Scream—t here aren't that many great horror franchises still standing. So much has gone into making these franchises among the best of the best. Smile 2 allowed a burgeoning franchise into the Horrror Hall of Fame for several reasons. And it's not just the fan and critical reaction that helped it do that.

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By Cameron Swan

Franchise Greats Are Few And Far Between

When talking about a classic horror movie franchise, it's not about how long it's been around, though that usually helps. And it's not about having more than one film on the subject. There's all sorts of different factors that allow it to reach that status. That's why Scream is among those that is right there near the top of the list. The first factor is that the franchise has to offer something that hasn't really been seen before. Scream did that by making the slasher genre meta. The victims and the killers talked about other slasher movie classics, while living in a slasher movie. There's also the fact that the "bad guy" can pop up anywhere. Especially when people think the danger is over.

Scream did this by having the killers unmasked suddenly, just when the "good guys" thought they had eliminated the last baddie. Halloween did it because Michael Myers would suddenly pop up wearing his mask behind unsuspecting victims and take them out before they even knew what trouble they were in. He moved so stealthily despite being such a big guy that no one ever could figure out just how big his body count was. But he's become such an important villain in horror movie lore that he's spawned multiple sequels, remakes, and even video games. Jason Voorhees was similar in that he often moved silently and then suddenly took a step out of the shadows in order in order to claim his victims.

Smile 2
Directed By	Parker Finn
Written By	Parker Finn
Starring	Naomi Scott, Rosemarie DeWitt, Dylan Gelula, Lukas Gage, Kyle Gallner, Peter Jacobson, Miles Gutierrez-Riley
Runtime	2 Hours, 7 Minutes
Release Date	October 18, 2024

In Smile and Smile 2, the demon that hunts its victims works differently than Jason and Michael, but there are some similar aspects. The victims of this monster don't ever see it coming. There's plenty of times when they think they've escaped it, or are at least safe for the moment. And then it shows itself again. Granted, it doesn't spring up behind the victim. In fact, it usually shows up right in front of its target, but it still manages to keep itself away from who it is after until it wants to spring the trap. Though it does tend to toy with its victims more than Jason and Michael. In that regard it's far more like Freddy from Nightmare on Elm Street, or the killers in Scream.

Making the villains hard to see coming is one of the biggies with these kinds of movies. It what helps make them classic. It helps make them so popular that, as in the case of Smile 2, the sequel actually makes more money than the original. It also gets good ratings from the critics. Smile 2 has an 83 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Even fan favorite horror films find it hard to hit that kind of critical love.

The Bad Guy Wins

A man smiling in a creepy way in Smile 2

One of the things that really makes a great horror franchise is that there is a very real chance that the good guys aren't going to win the fight against the ultimate evil. In this Smile and Smile 2 really stand out. In movies like the Nightmare on Elm Street installments, the bad guy loses at the end of each movie, but there's an understanding that he might be back. That he hasn't been beaten altogether.

Below are spoilers for Smile 2

In Smile and Smile 2, the movie goes even further in making viewers think that the demon is about to lose. And then the rug is pulled out from under the audience and the heroes. Suddenly, they realize that the happy ending they thought they were about to get was nothing more than a cruel taunt to make the victim believe it was going to survive the ordeal. This is usually about the time the demon snaps the trap shut and totally claims the mind of its target.

That kind of ending is that makes the Smile movies stand out and makes them a classic franchise. It's a plot point that will keep people coming back to the theater to see if the baddie can finally lose. And they are movies where the people who star in it really have something at stake.

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