TSJ’s Horror Formula and SMILE 3 News |

Movie News: Smile 3 is on the Horizon, and TSJ’s Horror Formula

Movie sites are reporting that a director has been signed to direct the third installment.

TSJ’s Formula for Horror

I love a great horror story, regardless of the media. My favourite horror game is Alien: Isolation. The scariest film I’ve seen is John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness. William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist is the scariest book I’ve read. I also wrote an article here at Life After Gateway about the horror stories that affected me before the age of ten. And recently, I posted an article featuring twenty-two writers of Speculative Fiction in Canada and their favourite scary films. I have also appeared on the Re-Creative Podcast to speak about John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) and David Cronenberg’s The Fly (1986).

After decades of experiencing horror of various types, I’m not saying that this is my preferred formula, but it’s my preferred formula. It will likely change as I grow and evolve too.

A great horror film needs the following:

A clever and unique story
A great backstory to set up current events and the story’s rationale
Interesting characters
A rising body count with interesting kills
The aesthetic must be moody or full of oncoming dread
A unique setting helps
The villain must be creative, interesting, and scary as hell
A memorable score
A connection to one or more of the following helps:
- religion
- the supernatural
- a connection to the characters’ childhood, previous trauma, or life-changing events
- to the past, or historical events
Great, innovative visuals
A claustrophobic location helps (no escape) with a dangerous surrounding environment (a storm, perhaps)
A small cast of characters
A connection to society or a specific culture is a great bonus
A twist ending is nice, but not necessary because too often can be predictable
A false ending (or two … or three)
A chance that the villain didn’t actually die … and there could be more films in the future

Do you agree with this formula? Let me know in the comments below. Now to the news …

The News

I enjoyed Smile and Smile 2. They were both very different films. The first featured a psychologist who witnessed a patient die and suffers from odd visions following the event; the second was about a pop star suffering from the curse, and her efforts to decipher the clues and cure herself of the haunting.

Now comes news from Variety that Paramount has hired a director for the third installment.

Studio: Paramount Pictures
Director: David Bruckner (The Blob, currently in production, The Ritual)
Producer: Parker Finn (director of Smile, Smile 2), Jonathan Fass
Writer: Nick Antosca (Cape Fear 2026)
Cast: Unknown
Release: 2028?

There is no listed story for this at IMDB, but the previous two movie stories were:

After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, a psychiatrist becomes increasingly convinced she is being threatened by an uncanny entity.

and:

About to embark on a world tour, global pop sensation Skye Riley begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events. Overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and the pressures of fame, Skye is forced to face her past.

It seems clear that the third movie will also be a new and standalone story. As more information arrives, I’ll post it here at Life After Gateway. Watch this space.

In the meantime, here’s a bonus video from YouTube channel Paramount Movies — “The Therapist Scene” with one of the more remarkable scares.

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A Blanket of Steel by Timothy S. Johnston and from Fitzhenry & Whiteside, LTD. is the recipient of the 2024 GLOBAL Thriller Award GRAND PRIZE and the 2024 CYGNUS Award First in Category.

— Timothy S. Johnston, 3 November 2026

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Praise for Timothy S. Johnston’s A Blanket of Steel

“Fans of Clive Cussler’s NUMA Files will be delighted with Timothy S. Johnston’s undersea novels. Truman McClusky and Dirk Pitt are cut from the same adventurer’s cloth.” — Nick Cutter, author of The Deep and The Troop

“Action that ranges from close range combat to torpedo-fueled attacks. The result is a thriller that keeps moving from confrontation to confrontation … with constant danger and the vast depths of the ocean as a setting, there is always reason to keep reading.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Read the book and prepare to be blown away by one of the best writers I have ever had the pleasure to read. Timothy S. Johnston is simply amazing.” — FIVE Stars from Readers’ Favorite

“A Blanket of Steel is not simply a ‘daring do’ thriller … It’s prescient.” — Amazing Stories

“A priority selection. An action-packed story that is hard to put down. A Blanket of Steel is outstanding.” — D. Donovan, Sr. Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

“Innovative technology, Mac taking risks no one else would dare and thinking his way through to brilliant solutions … But the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been before. This is it. The countdown to the final battle … Johnston does an excellent job of keeping the tension taut as he plays with the reader’s perceptions of characters we thought we knew and trusted …” — SFcrowsnest

“Expect to be left breathless. Trust me here. Please. I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN.” — Michael Libling, author of The Serial Killer’s Son Takes A Wife and Hollywood North: A Novel in Six Reels

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A BLANKET OF STEEL is out now!

WATCH THE GRIPPING BOOK TRAILER HERE.

FOR PURCHASE OPTIONS CLICK HERE

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A Blanket of Steel from Timothy S. Johnston and Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Ltd.

Book Cover & Jacket Copy:

AN UNSTOPPABLE THREAT!

A mysterious assassin has murdered Cliff Sim, Chief Security Officer of the underwater colony, Trieste. Cliff was a mountain of a man, highly trained, and impossible to defeat in combat. And yet …

Someone brutally beat him and left his broken body in a secret Chinese facility at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

And included a calling card for Truman McClusky, Mayor of Trieste.

Taunting him.

Mac has led the underwater colonies in their fight against the world’s superpowers. Climate change has devastated the surface; nations suffer famine, drought, rebellion, rising waters, and apocalyptic coastal flooding. But now, as Mac leads the underwater colonies to freedom and independence, he’s faced with the gravest threat of his life: a Russian assassin, hellbent on killing Mac and everyone he cares for. Now Mac must uncover the identity of the killer, face him in combat, and at the same time lead people in battle against the largest underwater force ever assembled. It’s Mac’s final test, and to win the war, he must use every tool at his disposal, including the most surprising and devastating underwater weapons ever invented.

If Mac fails, all hope is lost for the future of human colonization on the ocean floors.

But the assassin could be anyone …

Watch your back, Mac.

A Blanket of Steel is the most gripping thriller yet in The Rise of Oceania.

FOR PURCHASE OPTIONS CLICK HERE

The other books in The Rise of Oceania series by Timothy S Johnston:

The War Beneath 9781771484718
The Savage Deeps 9781771485067
Fatal Depth 9781554555574
An Island of Light 9781554555819
The Shadow of War 9781554556007