"Smile" Review

Smile is a 2022 horror film directed by Parker Finn and starring Sosie Bacon. The film is an expansion of Laura Hasn't Slept, a short film directed by Finn. Bacon stars as Rose Cotter, a psychiatrist who meets with Laura (whose actress Caitlin Stasey also starred as the protagonist of Laura Hasn't Slept), a patient who insists that an invisible presence is stalking her, appearing in various hallucinations where people smile eerily at her. Laura then begins screaming and ultimately commits suicide in front of Rose. Rose soon finds herself being subjected by frightening experiences and begins to suspect that she has now been targeted by the same presence that Laura was apparently tormented by.

Smile is a film that melds together two general trends in horror: jump scares, and the exploration of trauma through the lens of horror. The jump scares are abundant and most of them are very effective in scaring the audience, and even though it can feel like the scares pile on one after another, they still startled and unsettled me each time. Finn proves himself a competent director as the film also has a lot of genuinely creepy stylistic choices rooted in disturbing smiles and slow camera pans to help build an atmosphere of unease and dread, though the upside-down rotating shots are a bit overplayed by the film's end. Bacon's performance as the gradually more desperate Rose confronts the reality of her horrifying situation is very good, getting across just how scared and traumatized Rose is. Smile is also an exploration of trauma and guilt, and how they can be passed to others around us and to the next generation, though it doesn't quite do this as well as some other films like The Babadook, Hereditary, or Midsommar. The film also takes a lot of sequences from other horror films like The Ring and It Follows, and while Finn is a talented director, the way he emulates concepts from those other films leaves Smile lacking in identity and uniqueness.

Smile is an effectively scary horror film about trauma and suicide with a strong lead performance from Sosie Bacon and interesting stylistic choices, despite its lack of a distinct identity. Worth a watch! 7/10