Smash Hit Horror Franchise Smile Getting a Spinoff, And We Have The First Look

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Parker Finn’s 2022 horror film, Smile, was a surprisingly great hit, and the 2024 sequel was even better. Now, fans can continue the story in a new comic book, rather than a theatrical release.

IDW Dark, the horror-focused branch of the comic book publisher IDW, is releasing Smile: For the Camera, a story set before the events of the Smile movie. However, this series isn’t meant to reveal how the creepy, controlling creature at the heart of the story came to be; it’s a different kind of story altogether.

Released in 2005, Smile: For the Camera explores a terrifying scenario: a demonic entity invading the world of high fashion. The story centers on five close friends, all professional models, who travel to New York City for Fashion Week. But their dreams turn into a nightmare when one of them becomes targeted by the shapeshifting demon, which reveals its presence with a disturbing smile.

The entity known as the Smile Demon spreads from person to person through intensely traumatic events, acting like a horrifying curse. In the first movie, it infects Dr. Rose Cotter (played by Sosie Bacon, whose mother is a horror icon) after she witnesses a patient, Laura Weaver (Caitlin Stasey), die by suicide while smiling. In the second film, pop star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), who is in recovery, becomes the monster’s next target just as she’s preparing for her music comeback, following a similar harrowing experience involving her former drug dealer.

Smile: For The Camera Is Slightly Autobiographical

Writer Hannah Rose May is adapting the film Smile into a comic book, continuing the story originally brought to the screen by Parker Finn. May is a seasoned horror comic creator, having previously written The Exorcism at 1600 Penn for IDW in 2024 and Rogues’ Gallery for Image in 2022. Interestingly, her background in a previous profession makes her particularly well-equipped to tell this new Smile story.

May created Smile: For the Camera drawing on her personal experiences as a fashion model. She’d wanted to write a horror story set in the fashion world for a long time. In a recent interview, she explained why she thought the industry was the ideal backdrop for her new, chilling comic.

Everyone knows the fashion world can be tough, but its challenges are very real, not fantastical. That’s what I found most appealing about this project – the chance to explore those difficulties, but with a central, powerful figure at the heart of the story.

The article also mentions that in 2024, IDW Dark announced new comics based on properties from Paramount Pictures, like A Quiet Place and Smile. May presented three comic ideas based on Smile, and the concept of the Smile Demon appearing at Fashion Week was the one that IDW liked best.

May is teaming up with artist Miriana Puglia on a new comic called Smile: For the Camera. Puglia is known for her work on Red Sonja with Dynamite, as well as comics based on Disney properties like Lilo & Stitch and Gargoyles. The comic series will also have special variant covers, some designed to look like fashion magazine covers with unsettling taglines. These covers will be created by artists including Martin Simmonds, Becky Cloonan, Stacey Lee, Skylar Patridge, and Kevin Wada.

Smile: For the Camera is available for preorder on Jan. 12, 2026, and hits the shelves on Feb. 18.

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2025-11-19 20:08