How Beyoncé and Doja Cat's dancers brought “Smile 2”'s stunning '“Cirque du Soleil” from hell' sequence to life

Director Parker Finn tells EW how he used practical effects to send a "huge swarm" of "Smile" dancers after Naomi Scott via demonic choreography.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Smile 2.

Haunting the midpoint of director Parker Finn's genre gem Smile 2 is something far more impressive than the film's Drew Barrymore cameo, Tate McRae-penned original soundtrack tune, and cutting pop culture commentary: a sequence that's both a stunning feat of diva-sized choreography and a masterful flex of camp-horror flair.

After spending the first half of the film uncovering the mystery behind the demonic curse that leaves her with days to live, troubled pop star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) retreats to her sprawling New York City apartment, where she's confronted with a disturbing vision of a troupe of dancers — all grinning under the influence of the evil Smile Entity — pursuing her throughout her home.

Finn tells Entertainment Weekly the sequence is his favorite of the film. Over two days in upstate New York, choreographer Celia Rowlson-Hall utilized A-list caliber dancers (who've worked with stars like Beyoncé and Doja Cat) to transform a dance Skye prepares earlier in the film into something far more sinister.

Related: Smile 2 ending explained: What that horrifying twist could mean for a potential third film

"Early on, we talked about wanting to discover Skye’s style of choreography and take it to a strange, dark place for that scene in particular," he says, noting that the jaw-dropping sequence also reflects Skye's mental descent throughout the film. As the dancers multiply, the sequence "changes and it goes from intense and playful to really disturbing and enormously visceral and frightening."

Finn stresses that all the dance moves in the scene are practical — including when some dancers start scaling the walls. “A lot of those dancers in that scene were from [Skye's] dance troupe earlier in the scene,” he says. “In that mirrored hallway, for that sequence, we put these hidden hand and foot holds so they could stack that way, hold it, and be frozen."

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As unsettling as the sequence is in the movie, Finn says there was an "electricity in the air with the crew" while they shot it that made the finished product a labor of love: "It was like choreographing a Cirque du Soleil from hell," he says.

Smile 2 — also starring Rosemarie DeWitt, Lukas Gage, and a returning Kyle Gallner — is now in theaters nationwide.