The New Mutants Scene That Will Scare Everyone - Exclusive

The superhero and horror genres join forces in The New Mutants, cranking up the levels of action and terror as audiences follow five mutant teens who are being held against their will at a psychiatric hospital. The group faces multiple challenges as they fight for their lives and plan an escape, and some of those intense adversities include seeing visions of their darkest fears, making for chilling scenes for viewers.

In a recent interview with Looper, The New Mutants writer and director Josh Boone shared there's one scene he thinks is particularly frightening: a sequence involving the terrifying Smiley Men.

"There are these characters called the Smiley Men. They are from the Anya character's past," Boone began, referencing Anya Taylor-Joy's character Illyana Rasputin, AKA Magik. "I think they are pretty scary and creepy and all that." 

Boone certainly isn't wrong about the power the Smiley Men have to raise viewers' hackles. They're bizarre and take their name from their wide mouths that are brimming with super-sharp teeth. Shudder.

In addition to the movie's ability to cause some fear, Boone is happy about The New Mutants' multifaceted nature: "It has all of the superhero things, like a big battle at the end, but also a lot of other elements that don't surface in movies like this."

In addition to scenes that shock and scare, Boone created evocative moods that implore moviegoers to take in the cinematic elements that set a terrifying tone. Filming at an old psychiatric hospital that's been closed for a number of decades sounds scary enough on its own — and Boone confirmed that, once inside, the building was even eerier than expected. 

"It was 150 years old — somewhere in that ballpark. It had been closed for 40 or 50 years. So when they took the doors down and we opened up these buildings, they had teams who had to go inside for weeks and fumigate and get all the asbestos out and make it safe for us to shoot there," said Boone. "There were still scribblings on the walls by patients who had been there. There were rooms where people had [died by suicide]. There were killers who had been there and done time there. It added to the atmosphere in a real way."

The New Mutants is out in select theaters now.