Walking Dead's Kyle Gallner reprises his role in psychological horror Smile 2
By Renee Hansen
Kyle Gallner's latest movie, Smile 2, features the actor in a reprisal of his role from the first film, released in 2022. The original film marks the directorial debut of Parker Finn, who also directs the sequel.
The story for Smile is based on Finn's short film Laura Hasn't Slept (2020), which premiered at SXSW in 2020. The short film stars Caitlin Stasey and Walking Dead's Lew Temple and won a SXSW Special Jury Recognition. You can view it below.
The first of Finn's films premiered to rave reviews in 2022 with the sequel released in 2024, which some say beats out the first movie.
In the first film, Sosie Bacon plays Rose Cotter, a therapist who after witnessing the gruesome suicide of a patient begins to experience disturbing events leading her to believe supernatural forces are at work. Gallner plays Joel, Rose's ex who works as a police officer. Jesse T. Usher plays Rose's current boyfriend with Caitlin Stasey reprising her role as Laura from Finn's original short.
Smile 2 stars Naomi Scott as Grammy Award-winning global pop star Skye Riley, who, after a comeback to the world of pop music, begins to experience physical and auditory hallucinations. She is then forced to face her past and keep control of her life before things, once again, spiral out of control.
Additional cast of Smile 2 includes Kyla Galler, reprising his role as Joel, a survivor from the first film, with Rosemarie DeWitt as Skye's mother and manager. Lukas Gage is Lewis, a drug dealer and acquaintance of Skye's; Miles Gutierrez-Riley is Skye's assistant, Joshua; and Raul Castillo is Darius, head of the record company. Peter Jacobson, Ray Nicholson, and Dylan Gelula also star.
Gallner attended the Smile 2 premiere and posted on social media with the caption "Last night I had to look like a grown up for the first time in a while so excuse the spam." I say give us all the Kyle Gallner spam!!
Gallner, who has been labeled a Scream King, starred in two horror/thrillers in 2023, JT Mollner's Strange Darling and Carter Smith's Blumhouse film The Passenger. Both films received positive reviews. He has also been featured in Scream (2022), Ghosts of War, The Cleansing Hour, Red State, Jennifer's Body, and more.
In 2009, Gallner portrayed cancer victim Matt Campbell in the supernatural horror The Haunting in Connecticut. He and his family move closer to a facility where he receives his cancer treatments, only to discover the home is a former mortuary that was used for rituals to communicate with the dead. Violent supernatural forces then haunt Matt and his family.
Another project that is near and dear to Gallner is the 2020 black comedy Dinner in America, which he starred alongside Emily Skeggs (The Miseducation of Cameron Post).
Next, Gallner will star with Samara Weaving, Kyra Sedgwick, and Jon Gries in the romantic crime thriller Carolina Caroline.
Another role for Gallner was that of Zach in season 4 of The Walking Dead. He was present in ep. 401 "30 Days Without An Accident" when Daryl (Norman Reedus) and a group go on a supply run. Zach was the boyfriend of Beth (Emily Kinney) who tried to guess Daryl's former occupation. Sadly, he was torn apart by walkers and then crushed when a helicopter caves in the ceiling of the store, crushing him.
Check out these stories and more on Undead Walking:
manual
Follow Undead Walking on Twitter (X) and Facebook and sign up for the once-daily Undead Walking newsletter to avoid missing out on everything in The Walking Dead universe.