Smile, you’re being filmed! Marketing and its ever more original ideas… To give future viewers a foretaste, the Paramount film production company launched a web site, – on the occasion ofHalloween -on which visitors can access the first seven minutes of the film free of charge Smile 2 currently playing in cinemas. And not to be outdone, the American studio is breaking new ground by forbidding its viewers to lose their smiles.

What’s the trick? All you have to do is turn on your camera, on your computer or on your phone, and keep smiling. If you lose it, the video pauses, and you can only see what happens next if you smile again. The camera captures every detail of your face. To view the first scenes of the film, you almost have to look like a “madman”, a bit like the characters in Smile 2. It’s up to the viewer whether to smile happily or smirk. One thing’s for sure, it seems harder to laugh at a horror movie than to look scared. And the “pause” option is likely to be in its heyday with this rather clever idea from Paramount.

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Excellent start for Smile 2

Just released in theaters in mid-October, the highly anticipated Smile 2 was a fitting accompaniment to the Halloween season, much to the delight of horror movie fans. This feature film tells the story of pop star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), who, affected by a sinister curse, begins to experience events as terrifying as they are inexplicable. The pressures of stardom and her increasingly horrifying daily life force her to confront her dark past, to regain control of her life before it’s too late.

This second installment in the franchise got off to an excellent start. The film earned $23 million in its opening weekend at the U.S. box office. As of October 31, it had grossed more than $40 million, while in France it attracted almost 550,000 spectators.