The horror genre has really been pumping out some incredible surprise originals like Barbarian, X, Fresh, and Nope that have made the genre absolutely thrive in 2022. Parker Finn’s full-length directorial debut Smile continues that trend well with Finn’s strong filmmaking and the fun premise creating a scare-fest that’s sure to be a crowd-pleaser.
Smile is based on Parker’s 2020 short film Laura Hasn’t Slept. The film follows psychiatrist Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon), who is in the fight for her life to break the curse of a smiling entity who has been terrorizing her since her patient’s gruesome suicide. Now, it’s worth noting that there are familiar elements in Smile that basically make you feel like you’re watching a bunch of different horror movies at once. The overall concept and horrifying motivation of the central smiling entity has vibes of The Ring and Pennywise from It. The detective and mystery aspects of the story feel reminiscent of Sinister. The haunting and stalking nature of the entity give off vibes of It Follows and The Invisible Man. The film’s harsh and grimy kills definitely feel like they belong in one of The Grudge movies.
It’s undeniable that Smile is a cocktail of horrors greatest modern hits, but that doesn’t mean that its bad, far from it actually. Rather than feel like it’s taking all the elements and just recycling them, it puts its own spin on things to craft a very engaging and fun horror story. There’s something oddly alluring about the smiling entity that never tires or stops being unsettling. Rose trying to uncover the truth behind this entity and its long history of horrors grows more and more terrifying throughout and keeps you hooked. Plus, it always feels like the stakes are raising with each day that passes and as the entity’s grip grows tighter on Rose and alters her reality.
It helps that Finn’s direction makes Smile absolutely terrifying to watch — particularly with how he executes scares and constantly plays with viewers’ minds. Throughout Smile, you’re just constantly left on the edge of your seat with sweaty palms as the jump scares are incredibly effective and well built. Finn expertly ramps up tension and uses silence well to ease viewers into the moment and draw them in only to deliver satisfying shocks that will make the film an uneasy watch. At times, Finn’s style of building up noise to suddenly cut it off, even just for transitions, can get a little repetitive, but it’s never enough to become intolerable or dull. Not to mention, the sheer brutality of the kills will leave you clinging to your seat in fear and the dark places that Smile can go are truly disturbing, especially in the finale.
As a horror fan, I can’t help but love when a film just shoots for the moon and tries extra hard to melt your mind when it doesn’t have to, and Smile does that and more in its final act. There are moments that’ll simply leave you jaw-dropped with how wild and grotesque they can be. When you see what this smiling entity is all about, it’s impossible not to be left stunned by its insanity. It’s pure horror fun that genre fans will love and is even more fun to watch with a crowd because of how it constantly draws a reaction. Also, the way that Finn just confidently helms all the unexpected horrors and the music from Cristobal Tapia de Veer, which might be the most fun score since Malignant, just works in creating an unforgettable finale. Smile is a wild ride you’re thrilled to be on and only ramps up the thills as it goes on. You never feel like you’re in control watching Smile and that’s big part of why its so scary.
The only downfall of Smile is its attempts to add in some story elements and themes surrounding mental health. Unfortunately, the characters aren’t strong or likable enough to make them work. Bacon delivers a great leading performance that adds a lot of sheer terror to situations and makes you emotionally connect with Rose’s surprisingly dark story. However, the other characters surrounding her don’t do the same. Rather, most of them are insufferably annoying or goofy and share no chemistry with Bacon at all. These characters are super thin and only serve as something to display toxic ways of handling someone going through mental health issues. At times, the film can get you thinking about how we handle and talk about mental health in interesting ways, but most of the time the film’s discussions and ideas around mental health are severely weak compared to the ongoing mystery mainly because of its faulty characters that are tough to connect with on a deeper level.
Regardless of its thematic shortcomings, Smile is another amazing original horror movie of 2022 that deserves a wide crowd to witness all the madness that Finn has concocted and react to all the sharp scares that put Smile as a strong contender for the title of the scariest film of the year.
