Just because October is over, doesn’t mean I’ve stopped watching and reviewing horror movies. This particular one I originally planned as part of my October Challenge, but I swapped it out for “Five Nights At Freddy’s” at the last minute. So this is somewhat late review of “Smile” from 2022.
Newcomer Parker Finn writes and directs the movie and it stars Kevin Bacon’s daughter Sosie Bacon in her horror movie debut. Bacon is not a complete stranger to horror however, having appeared in the “Scream” TV series for four episodes. The main support is from Jessie T. Usher and Kyle Gallner. Smile had a tremendously successful marketing campaign which mostly involved the stars standing around at public events with insane grins. It went on to gross $217m worldwide, which for a movie costing only $17m to make (and probably more than that in P&A) represents a huge profit. But is it any good?
I’m Not Crazy!
Sosie Bacon plays “Rose Cotter” an overworked but driven therapist at a psychiatric ward. Rose is largely driven in this career by the impact of witnessing her mother’s suicide when she was young. Having been too afraid of her mentally ill mother to assist her, she blames herself for her death. One day she asked to speak to a new patient called Laura (Played by Caitlin Stasey). Laura is thought to be suffering extreme trauma After witnessing her college professors suicide. She claims she isn’t insane and is instead being tormented by some kind of monstrous entity. The thing would appear to her in the form of various people, all of whom would be grinning. After freaking out in the interview, Laura takes on this same manic grin and cuts her own throat.
Rose is shaken by the incident and soon she starts seeing this entity herself. After realizing there is more to this then just trauma Rose begins to investigate. Looking into both her patient and the professor she finds a long chain of suicides. Convinced now that this curse is real she desperately tries to find a way out of it. Her friends and family however don’t believe her, largely because they wonder if she has inherited her mother’s mental illness. Her ex boyfriend however, police detective “Joel” (Gallner) attempts to help her dig into this mystery. They discover there was a break to the chain of suicides and Rose wonders if this may give her a way out. But will it be that simple?
Behind The Smile.
So first thing to talk about here is the crazy grin. This isn’t the first film to make use of the unsettling nature of an exaggerated grin. The first use was likely “The Man Who Laughs” from 1928, famously the inspiration for The Joker. It’s also worth noting a famous “Creepypasta” known as “The smiling Man” also features this and may well be the inspiration for the film. Not too many years before this Blumhouse released the movie “Truth or Dare” (2018), which also heavily pushed the gimmick. That movie was a much more generic horror than this, but it used the smile in much the same way. In both it is a way to tell the viewer and the victim of the presence of the movies antagonist. It’s also not really explained as anything other than just a thing that happens. Both antagonists seem to enjoy toying with their victims, but outside of that there is no real reason for it. It is a gimmick. Despite naming the film after the smile and very successfully focusing the marketing on it, It still feels like a gimmick
The strength of the movie though is in the atmosphere it builds. It’s notable that there are actually only two deaths on screen. Several are mentioned, but only two are actually shown. The vast majority of the horror is the evil entity creeping out Rose and these scares are done very well. Outside of this the movie relies a lot on the the creative cinematography (Interesting, though not always effective) and the discordant noise based music to maintain the atmosphere and it does it well. It’s become a trend with a lot of modern films (Mostly, but not exclusively horror) to have noise based soundtracks. Lots of ambiance, bangs, scrapes and a few discordant notes. I’m not especially fond of this trend, but it works effectively here. Without the creepiness the soundtrack brings to the table, the movie probably wouldn’t work.
Suicide Girls.
The movies is very competently put together, especially consider this is a directorial debut. We have an interesting protagonist. Rose is flawed and damaged, but is aware of both. She knows most of this stems from her guilt over her mother’s death. That trauma plays a key role. It’s hinted that all the Smile entities victims have this kind of past trauma. When she isn’t being abused by the entity, we get to see Rose’s regular life and watch her gradually failing mental state. It’s worth noting the “Birthday present” scene (No spoilers) either demonstrates that the entity can impact the world outside their victim, that it can control her already or possibly that Rose actually did it herself. It poses an interesting question for sure.
Laura the first victim, launches the film and sets the audience up for what to expect. Caitlin Stasey, mostly known for her roles in Australian soap operas, plays the role. As the first victim, the first person controlled by the Smile entity, the first person to provide exposition and the form the entity takes for a lot of the film, everything hinges on her performance. Fortunately she puts in a cracker. You really feel her terror and once she is taken over by the entity it is definitely creepy. I was less impressed with Jessie T. Usher, who just didn’t seem that genuine as a character, but despite being Rose’s fiance had only a small role.
Conclusion.
In conclusion while the smile thing is a bit of a gimmick and not particularly original, the movie itself is pretty good. It is straightforward but well put together. It provides a great creepy atmosphere, gives us a new interesting take on an evil entity (We’re never given a clue as to what it is, so I’m sticking with “Entity”) and gives us an interesting and flawed protagonist who we get to see deteriorate to breaking point. Perhaps the movie could be accused of being a little “One note”, but that persistence to the theme is key to what builds the atmosphere. I do think there could have been more done with it, but Overall I’m impressed and look forward to seeing what Parker Finn does next. This is a 7/10
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