Smile (2022) Review

Based on his 2020 short Laura Hasn’t Slept, Parker Finn’s feature directorial debut Smile was the smash hit of 2022 gaining great reviews and praise all boosted by a viral marketing stunt which saw actors in day-glo yellow t-shirts smiling maniacally in random public places such as Baseball games and live TV broadcasts.

But now that the publicity has died down is Smile all hype and no horror?

The answer is most definitely not and in fact it is one of the best horror movies of last year. Chilling from start to finish, writer and director Parker Finn has created a creepy central concept that innovates on a tried and tested format, worming its way into the viewers head and never letting go.

Opening with a stunning pre-credit sequence we meet Dr. Rose Cotter (13 Reason Why’s Sosie Bacon) a therapist at a busy Emergency Psychiatric Unit over worked to exhaustion after dealing with a myriad of mentally ill patients.

Sent home by her boss Dr. Morgan Desai (Kal Penn from the Harold & Kumar movies) Rose is about to leave when she is called to see a distressed woman who has come in after witnessing her professor bludgeon himself to death with a hammer a few days before.

The patient starts to talk about seeing an entity that is haunting her and telling her she is going to die. It looks like people but its not a person she says, it wears peoples faces like a mask and “It’s smiling at me. But not a friendly smile. It’s the worst smile I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Rose is sceptical and thinks the lady is suffering a psychotic episode however when the woman freaks out, smashes a light and slits her own throat in front of Rose while smiling at her, it is clear something far more sinister is taking place.

From this point Rose’s life starts to spiral out of control. Plagued by horrific hallucinations the world around her becomes a frightening and dangerous place as she begins to distrust everything around her.

Coming to the conclusion she is cursed her co-workers, fiancee Trevor (The Boys Jessie T. Usher) and sister starts to reject her in attempt to protect themselves from her unhinged and paranoid behaviour.

Turning to the only person left who can help Rose seeks out former boyfriend and current cop Joel (last seen in Kyle Gallner 2022’s Scream) and the pair begin to piece together a petrifying puzzle of trauma, death and smiling faces.

Echoing films like The Ring and The Grudge, Rose’s quest to discover the history of her curse and stop it ending her life follows a pattern set in stone across a bunch of horror flicks. Where the film diverts is in its original presentation and interesting examination of mental health and the cycle of trauma.

From the Comedians smiley faced badge in Watchman to Jack Torrance’s insane grin in The Shining to the cackling chaos of the Joker in all his incarnations, a smiling face has a special place in horror all the way back to the 1928 silent drama The Man Who Laughs.

Rose’s constant confrontations with ghoulishly grimacing everyday people is extremely unnerving especially when they are performing blood drenched acts of violence on themselves but Parker Finn is making a bigger point in Smile and that is where the films true power lies.

As madness descends all around her in an especially poignant scene we see Rose putting on make up and rehearsing her fake smile in the mirror before attending her nephews ill fated birthday party. Rose’s transformation from intelligent, focused dedicated doctor to nail bitting deranged psychotic is extremely effectively achieved by both the film and Sosie Bacon’s performance.

Strange angles, floating voyeuristic perspectives and a jarring and often abstract score from Cristobal Tapia de Veer all create a constant state of tension and terror with Finn forcing the audience to identify as closely as possible with Rose’s plight.

The language of mental health abounds in Smile from Rose at the start and then her caring therapist Dr. Madeline Northcott (Deadwood’s Robin Weigert) who attempts to become the voice of reason while the lead lady is falling apart.

The flip side of this is the derogatory slurs used by her friends and family who throw around words like crazy, mental and more, all realistically portraying the stigma around mental health issues that runs rampart even in todays supposedly enlightened times.

Stress and psychological strain lie under the surface of many characters in Smile several of which are linked by experiencing trauma in childhood like Rose who saw her own mothers suicide. As in The Babadook and It Follows the cycle of pain becomes a key to not only the curse but also the supernatural creatures power over its victims and the films climax cleverly subverts expectations making it all the more menacing.

Although full of jump scares and gory moments the true horror in Smile is that Rose’s deterioration could happen to any of us suffering a breakdown. Like its central character we are all alone in our own minds, tortured by our trauma, battling with internal demons and in fear of alienation by outside judgment.

Sometimes all you can do is put on a smile although Finn’s film proves that whats behind that smile might be something truly nightmarish.

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