50 Movies Where Evil Won

Plot: Both films feature their protagonists who, after witnessing a suicide, find themselves being stalked by a sinister demon that's going to kill them in a week.

The tagline for the first Smile reads, "Once you see it, it's too late." That's pretty much it; no way to defeat the demon has yet been established. 

Both of Smile's protagonists - therapist Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) in the first film, pop star Skye Riley in the second - made noble efforts to escape the clutches of the villainous entity, but neither of them managed to escape their fate. Rose committed suicide in front of her ex-boyfriend Joel (Kyle Gallner), thus passing on the curse to him (he dies in the second film's opening), and Skye committed suicide during a live performance, presumably passing the curse on to thousands of audience members. 

It's quite terrifying to even contemplate how that's going to unfold in the upcoming Smile 3. There's a strong argument to be made that writer/director Parker Finn should try doing a different ending, as in both cases, the ending was one of the weaker parts of what were two very solid horror films otherwise. In the first Smile, the ending felt like a somewhat cruel cop-out, and though it worked better in Smile 2, it was just a copy of the first film's denouement. 

Perhaps the third picture could have a happy ending? That'd be lovely!