10 Movie Sequels That Were Basically The Same Movie

Perhaps no genre more keenly repeats itself than horror, and so it wasn't terribly surprising that Smile 2 largely retraced the steps of its surprisingly solid predecessor.

The original focused on therapist Rose (Sosie Bacon) being terrorised by a trauma demon with increasingly horrifying sights before tricking her into thinking she'd won and then killing her, and Smile 2 did very much the same.

This sequel switches out Rose for pop star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), but the A-to-Z beats are largely the same, with Skye losing grip of her sanity, believing she's triumphed over the curse, and then being brutally killed in front of a witness, allowing the curse to spread.

Obviously, the nitty-gritty particulars are different and Smile 2 makes the most of its bigger budget for some beefed-up set-pieces, but the spine of each story follows a very similar bent. Hopefully, filmmaker Parker Finn might buck the trend a little for Smile 3, lest fans feel the formula beginning to tire. 

Given the grim implications of Smile 2's ending, there's certainly plenty of room for Finn to do something quite different with the threequel.