Horror Movie Review: ‘Smile’: At Least The Title Is Positive
Image Source: Polygon
I’ll have to admit, when I first saw the advertisement for Smile, I didn’t think much of it, as it didn’t pique my interest. However, when a coworker came running to my desk and forced me to watch the trailer, that’s when I was sold. Specifically, the last five seconds of the trailer are what hooked me.
After laughing profusely, I mentioned that the movies reminded me of It Follows, a film that roughly has the same entity-body transfer plot. But something told me to see it, so I dragged my coworker (since this was all her doing), and we went to the movies, blankets in tow. I would like to briefly mention that Paramount had a guerrilla advertisement run in the form of planting people in the stands at baseball games who smiled at the camera. Check it out here:
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We open with Rose, a therapist at a psychiatric emergency ward, where a young Ph.D. student named Laura has come in with visions and extreme paranoia. She brings up the fact that the stress of her degree isn’t causing what is currently happening to her. It’s mentioned that she saw her professor commit suicide right in front of her, and prior to that, she was someone that showed no signs of suicide or even depression.
Her fiancé, Trevor (Jessie T. Usher, The Boys), sees Rose struggling and wants to help. However, this help comes in the form of using mentally harmful terminology, such as “crazy,” “nut-job,” and “head cases,” and also researched inherited mental illness and firmly believes that this is what is happening to Rose. He consistently brushes her concerns off to the point where her sister, brother-in-law, and even her former therapist are all convinced that it’s inherited from her mother.
She reaches out to her former boyfriend, an investigator, to help her figure out if there is any connection to the people she knows who have died and seen the smile. Since he is the only person that tries to help her make sense of what is happening. He looks into past cases to see if there’s any connection aside from the professor. The ending gives us a mix of Evil Dead meets Resident Evil 8, and we’re all here for it.
Image source: IMDb
This movie was fun. As I said before, it has the trope of entity-body transfer, which usually makes for a great movie, i.e., It Follows, The Exorcist. It changes how things are connected and how we see the absolute breakdown of the main character.
Of course, it’s one jump scare after another, and the eerie smile constantly follows Rose. In his debut feature as writer and director, Parker Finn makes good use of quick, suspenseful moments with sound effects and a soundtrack that’s turned up to 11 throughout the film.
I love horror movies, and I love thrillers. I love the adrenaline rush I get when watching these kinds of films. My anxiety is always at an 11, and I’m usually curled into a ball in my seat by the time the credits roll. I also love it when there’s humor in a horror movie, but not the cheesy, obvious humor. No. I love the unintentional humor, which is why I laughed at the trailer. It was supposed to be a quick jump scare, which it was, but it was also unexpected and humorous.
I’m giving this a 6 out of 10 because while I enjoyed myself, it wasn’t really THAT original of a story. Also, I probably won’t seek to watch it again, except to watch it in a group setting with friends so we can all laugh and have a good time. My other complaint is that with a 115-minute runtime, it feels too long for a horror movie. However, I highly suggest you give it a go when it begins streaming because it is worth watching at least once. With Paramount being the leading distributor, look for it on Paramount+ in the near future.
Rating: 6/10
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