You can watch a seven-minute free excerpt of Paramount‘s new horror flick Smile 2 online — but the grin you’ll need to plaster on your face is not included.
That’s right: The studio has pulled out yet another ad stunt, requiring watchers to hold anywhere between a light smile to a full-out Cheshire Cat leer to view the film’s first seven minutes. Launched for Halloween, the webpage requires an age verification before users are directed to a screen asking for permissions to be granted for camera access. Then, the screen prompts viewers to smile and hold it for the following seven minutes of Parker Finn’s follow-up to the 2022 original pic.
If you’re thinking that you can somehow outsmart the tech, think again: The webpage, which flashes your image green upon smiling, expeditiously changes to flash a red outline at the drop of the smile. The screen then goes black, prompting a message that says — rather ominously — “Keep Smiling.”
And, yes, it’s just as creepy as it sounds.
This isn’t the first time Paramount has embarked on, um, ingenious marketing campaigns, previously spearheading a viral PR run that included actors freaking out fans and ESPN commentators alike by flashing toothy smiles at MLB games. But the move isn’t exclusive to Paramount, as 20th Century Studios launched a New York City campaign that featured actors wearing undulating facehuggers in real life to promote Alien: Romulus.
Released Oct. 18 in theaters, Smile 2 stars Naomi Scott as a pop phenom with a troubled past, whose livelihood and career starts to spiral out of control after she finds herself being haunted by an incessant, devilishly smiling entity. Additional cast includes Lukas Gage, Ray Nicholson, Rosemarie DeWitt, Kyle Gallner, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Peter Jacobson, Raúl Castillo and Dylan Gelula. One of the biggest horror hits of the year, the feature recently crossed the $100 million worldwide box office mark.