early departure Trap brilliantly depicts the special excitement generated by a flock of young concert-going girls and the awkwardness of the parents often assigned as chaperones. Of course, considering this Shyamalan movie, all is not as it seems. The concert is actually an elaborate trap set up to catch Josh Hartnett’s infamous serial killer, who came to the concert with his daughter.

The film then shows him trying everything he can think of to escape, which leads him and his daughter to meet Lady Raven backstage. Here, the star, played by the wide-eyed, not-yet-Primetime-ready Saleka, figures out what’s going on and tries to expose Hartnett to the world. Ultimately, he is able to do this by broadcasting a confession of his secret misdeeds to his millions of fans on social media.

In Shyamalan’s world, pop stardom has dark potential; but this is only superficially. Lady Raven has no idea that there is a serial killer who is harming people while trying to escape his job. He also doesn’t show many outward signs that he’s struggling with fame. He accidentally finds himself face to face with a murderer and then goes into hero mode. All in all, Shyamalan’s portrayal of pop stardom is positive; Lady Raven is able to encourage her fan base to do a good deed and everyone goes home happy. Except for Hartnett’s devastated family, of course.

Against this, smile 2 It’s a much, much darker take on pop stardom. Riley is a trainwreck from the beginning of the film; a whole slew of mental health issues, addictions, stress and trauma. When the smile parasite infects him, it can overcome his current problems, convincing him that he is worthless and that everyone in his life hates him.

While it’s never confirmed how much of Riley’s problems stem from the pressures of being a pop star and how many are the same issues many of us face, Finn’s take on pop stardom is undoubtedly duller than Shyamalan’s. He makes it painfully clear that at times, Riley is viewed as nothing more than a meal ticket by her mother and the sycophants who surround her. When he appears in public with his fans, he cannot distinguish between those who are real and those who could harm him.

Finn shows that people can’t help but think that because pop stars are public figures, they owe them something; But Riley, like everyone else, is just a human trying to keep his head above water. By the end of the movie, it becomes clear that Riley might have some of the same problems if she wasn’t a world-famous pop star, but it certainly didn’t help her. In fact, it made him unhappy.

In the end, both philosophies of pop stardom are probably valid, and it’s worth noting that the films are trying to achieve very different things. But it’s hard not to think that Finn’s vision could be more realistic; Shyamalan’s vision, however, is what he believes is true for the father of a daughter.

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