UNITED STATES – Around this time in 2023, audiences were heading to movie theatres to experience the joy of being in the presence of a pop star.
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (2023) had just been released, prompting Swifties and the Swift-curious to descend on multiplexes, friendship bracelets adorning their wrists. Weeks later, the Beyhive would don silver cowboy hats for the release of Renaissance: A Film By Beyonce (2023).
Attending one of these concert films meant having a great time and revelling in the glory of the women onstage who seemed to be doing the same.
Now, being a pop star at the movies looks a lot more terrifying.
Horror centred on pop stars is all the rage these days.
In American director M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap, released in August, the concert by the fictional Lady Raven (Saleka) is an elaborate set-up to nab a serial killer (Josh Hartnett).
Now showing in Singapore cinemas, Smile 2, directed by American film-maker Parker Finn, follows Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), a troubled Grammy winner with a history of addiction who comes to be possessed by a demon that drives her mad with violent hallucinations.
To her fans and her team, it looks like she is on another, possibly drug-induced spiral, but really a monster is goading her into killing herself.
Both these movies are a product of a time when the business of being a pop star is bigger than ever. Events like the Eras and Renaissance tours became zeitgeist-defining moments, as well as fodder that film-makers could mine for inspiration.
Shyamalan was even direct about it in an Empire interview. His premise for Trap: “What if The Silence Of The Lambs happened at a Taylor Swift concert?”
But both Trap and Smile 2 prove that beyond the fun of the set-up, the life of a pop star is actually thematically ripe for horror. It is a high-pressure job in which you never know whether you are meeting a fan or a predator.
Smile 2 articulates this particularly well early on when Skye is doing a meet-and-greet. She has recently been infected with what is known as the “Smile entity” after witnessing her drug dealer gruesomely smash his own face in with a weight plate.
At the event, Skye signs autographs and smiles for photos with people who fawn over her. But then an unnerving man approaches. His hair is long, his skin is bad and his gaze is lecherous. He soon makes a pass at Skye and must be escorted away.
After a breather, she returns to her duties and is approached by a little girl in pigtails. The child does not say anything, just wears the creepy smile of the evil monster that has infected Skye.
Who is the real villain here? The gross man? The little girl? Or both? Viewers are left wondering which is a fan crossing a line or someone more sinister.
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