WARNING: This article includes descriptions of violence, suicide, and self-harm.

WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for Smile 2.Both Smile and ending of Smile 2, there are still many questions surrounding the entity that plagues the central characters.

Heavy with themes of trauma, grief, and addiction, the Smile franchise does a tremendous job in providing just enough background information about the evil entity at its center, while still leaving much of it unexplained. The sequel smartly (and somewhat surprisingly) did very little to elaborate on the entity's backstory from the first movie, contributing to Smile 2's stellar Rotten Tomatoes debut. That means that some of the most important elements of the entity and how it terrifies and ultimately kills its victims requires explanation.

The Known History Of The Smile Curse

Characters From Both Movies Have Tracked It Back In Time

While the true nature of the entity remains mysterious, characters in both Smile and Smile 2 were able to track the chain of deaths around it to discover its pattern of behavior and timeline from infection to death. The ER nurse that Naomi Scott's character Skye communicates with in Smile 2, Morris (Peter Jacobson), mentions that he managed to track it back through at least eight victims, including his brother. He briefly lists a few, which include both Kyle Gallner's Joel and Sosie Bacon's Rose from the original Smile.

In the original Smile, Kyle Gallner's Joel, as a police officer, is able to track a chain of suicides back with accompanying photos and security videos. Each victim of the Smile Curse saw another person commit a ghastly suicide in front of them, in methods ranging from stabbing themselves with garden shears and slicing their own throat with glass to other more inventive means. It operates like a parasite, feeding on a person's fear and trauma until it has mentally broken them, at which time it latches onto a new host.

How The Smile Entity es From One Person To The Next

Any Potential Host Needs To Witness A Specific Traumatic Event

The entity feeds on trauma, and seems to target people who already have trauma in their past (or present) as its victims. In order for the curse to from one person to another, the new host needs to witness the currently cursed host die, usually in some graphic manner. That creates the trauma that the entity feeds on, allowing it to discard the dead host and jump to its new one.

While the original Smile initially made it seem like it required a suicide to occur in front of a new host, it is later revealed (and confirmed in Smile 2) that it can transfer after a new host witnesses any method of death--as long as it's traumatic. The trauma is the key; watching a person away in their sleep theoretically wouldn't allow the curse to , it needs to be something shocking that will scar the witness. That explains the entity's penchant for gruesome suicides: it can create the traumatic event that it needs.

How Long Someone With The Smile Curse Will Live For

Death Comes Shockingly Fast To Each Host

Both Smile and Smile 2 note that death typically comes within a week once a person is infected by the Smile Curse, but that doesn't necessarily mean a person will last for seven days. It seems that most victims actually end up dying within at least four days, as it only takes that long for the entity to completely break the person's mind with its horrifying visions and ever-smiling manifestations. It's difficult to ever pin down a precise time, as the audience is typically seeing things from the main character's viewpoint, which is usually distorted by the entity.

How The Smile Curse Chain Can Be Broken

There Are Several Theories But None Have Been Carried Out Successfully

Rose and Joel actually manage to track down someone who managed to break the curse in Smile, or at least, he found a way to it along to someone else. They visit convicted murderer Robert Talley, who tells them that his murder was actually the path that saved him from the Smile Curse; by killing a person in front of a witness, the entity ed from him and latched onto that witness. The curse was not permanently broken in that instance, but it was at least ed along to a new person.

Skye Riley's deceased ex-boyfriend Paul Hudson, who the entity impersonates at the charity dinner she presents at, is played by Jack Nicholson's son Ray Nicholson, who channels his father's iconic smile from The Shining.

In Smile 2, the ER nurse Morris, whose brother was killed by the entity, theorized that there was a way to permanently end the curse and destroy the entity. As it feeds on trauma and needs to jump from one host to another, he believed that it would be destroyed if a host was killed in some way outside the entity's infestation and forced suicide. He proposes stopping Skye Riley's heart temporarily, effectively "killing" her while giving the entity no new host to jump to, which he believed would kill it.

However, that method never actually plays out, as Smile 2's big twist ending reveals that almost all the events of the past few days, including Skye's communication and attempt with Morris, happened inside her head just as the entity was set to take over her mind. Therefore, it's never actually revealed if Morris' method would have worked, and the entity remains free to plague more victims.

The Smile's Curse's Powers & Hallucinations Explained

The Entity Uses A Combination Of Familiar Tricks And New Horrors

In its undisguised form which only its hosts can see, the Smile entity manifests as a skinless, humanoid monster with many smiling mouths nested inside each other. It only reveals itself as it climbs inside its host, having broken their minds with its terrifying hallucinations. As it readies its host for its entry, the entity haunts them with visions of normal people, sometimes even loved ones, who won't break a haunting, dark smile.

It remains to be seen if the Smile Entity is able to multiply itself, or if it can possess multiple victims at once.

The entity does have several tricks that it repeats, the most notable of which is impersonating people close to its victims. It gains their trust and peace before revealing itself via the evil smile, maximizing the fear and torment, and enhancing its victim's anxiety and paranoia. As it slowly takes control of their mind, the entity can make them forget periods of time, take actions that they don't at all, and scare them so badly that they become sleep-deprived. All of these tactics combine to make that person question their reality to the point of breaking completely.

Smile 2 ends with a question regarding the entity's level of power. It forces Skye to kill herself by jamming her microphone into her own eye while on stage at an arena packed with fans. The implication is that each of the thousands of witnesses to Skye's suicide can now act as hosts for the entity, although it remains to be seen if it's able to multiply itself, or if it can possess multiple victims at once. Given the critical and commercial success of both Smile and Smile 2, it seems likely that another Smile sequel could answer that question.