There’s a lot to love about the horror genre, including how vastly different an antagonist can be from one film to the next. There are your classic monster/slasher big bads, who relentlessly stalk their prey – often teenagers – until they’re taken down by the final girl in some fashion that both wraps things up but also leaves the door open for a sequel. Then there’s the more supernatural route, where things are a bit more up in the air, as there isn’t exactly a physical presence for the protagonist to do battle with. While the former is often fun and full of blood and jump scares, the latter can be downright terrifying if done properly – and Smile is one that does it right.
Smile sees the film’s protagonist Rose (Sosie Bacon) battling it out with an entity that has targeted and cursed her, pushing her to the edge mentally and toying with her sanity, all while telling her that her time will soon be up. It gives off vibes of The Ring or It Follows, where those who are at risk of death due to this supernatural presence stalking them have a tough time defending themselves because there isn’t anything physical for them to do battle with or point out to others. This is one of Smile’s great strengths, as writer/director Parker Finn does a superb job of creating an atmosphere that feels like a waking nightmare from which Rose cannot escape.
The film is just under two hours in length, but it’s paced incredibly well, with no moments really wasted or there simply to allow for a scare. The plot is constantly moving forward, even though it mainly consists of Rose trying to get those around her to believe that she’s being mentally tortured by something nobody else can see. Rose is a psychiatrist in a psych ward, and it’s here that she meets a patient named Laura (Caitlin Stasey) who is at a breaking point, pleading for help and telling Rose that something is after her that only she can see, counting down the days she has left and haunting her with a horrifying smile.
Dealing with this sort of behavior on a daily basis, Rose tries to calm Laura down by explaining what may be causing these hallucinations, but that only makes things worse as Laura realizes that Rose – like everyone else – doesn’t believe her, and that she’s going to die. And she does, committing suicide in vicious fashion right in front of Rose, all while staring directly at her and smiling. This is what kickstarts Rose’s journey into this ongoing nightmare, as she begins to see visions of Laura smiling, and the feeling that something is after her.
There’s a lot that comes together here in order to make Smile work as well as it does, from the beautifully lit cinematography by Charlie Sarroff, to the chilling score by Cristobal Tapia de Veer. Throughout there’s the vision of Finn behind the camera that truly elevates things, as the inverted and constantly changing camera angles put the viewer off balance in a way that helps match Rose’s plunge into the dark corners of her mind. I mentioned the pacing earlier, and I’ll do so again here, as the film takes place over the course of a week or less, but Rose isn’t sleeping and constantly looks more and more mentally and physically worn down. She isn’t given a moment to just take a beat and try and gather her bearings and neither is the audience, which is truly what helps make the film become as effective as it is.
Bacon plays the part of Rose spectacularly, as this is a demanding role to take on. There’s a lot going on here for this character, and Bacon portrays Rose’s crumbling over the course of the film exactly how it needed to be done in order to make everything work. As the characters around her continue to live out their normal lives, seeing things how we all do, Rose’s world is covered in darkness and is falling apart, but nobody else sees it as anything but a mental breakdown, or the potential of her suffering from an illness that’s finally taken hold. It’s all handled properly by Finn and Bacon, never making light of mental illness nor writing it off, instead focusing on how scary it would be to actually feel helpless and scared for your life while those around you don’t believe anything you’re saying – much like Rose did with Laura.
It must also be pointed out that this is Finn’s feature film directorial debut, and he absolutely destroys it. The film is based off a short film that he did called Laura Hasn’t Slept, and from that the studio wanted him to develop a feature length version of the story, to which Smile was born. It will take more than one movie under his belt to know how bright the future is for Finn, but I’m eager to see what he does next. His work here gave me the same horror vibes that James Wan delivers when behind the camera, so whatever Finn decides upon next I’m hoping it leaves me smiling as much as this one did.
Overall Rating: 4/5
4K Blu-ray Video and Audio Review
The 2160p transfer of Smile onto 4K is exactly what fans of the film, and newcomers watching for the first time, would hope for. There’s a stylistic look to the film that gives it an overall ominous vibe, never allowing the brighter scenes that take place inside or during the day to be overly vibrant. It’s a waking nightmare of sorts and it looks like it. The blacks are deep and rich, and the details overall are sharp and help pull the viewer in.
While the film shines in its 4K picture delivery, the audio side of things may be an even brighter spot, with the films unique music score and sound effects blasting through in Dolby Atmos form from one side of the room to the other. It’s all encompassing on the audio side of things, which ups the chill factor across the board. Some great choices were made for the film’s audio presentation and they’re brought into your living room exactly how they were meant to be heard.
Special Features
Audio Commentary – It’s nice when you get to hear from those who made the film in commentary form, and here we get to listen to writer/director Parker Finn talk about his feature film debut, bringing Smile to life and all that went into it. For this film there’s nobody more you’d want to hear from, and Finn does a good job of giving viewers an inside look at how he wanted the film to come to be.
Something’s Wrong with Rose: Making Smile – For those who don’t like commentary tracks, this is the meat and potatoes feature on the disc, coming in at just under 30-minutes in length. Here we get to see why the studio went after Finn, how they helped surround him with a strong crew to bring his vision to life, the actors on their characters and just about everything you’d like to see behind-the-scenes all in one place.
Flies on the Wall: Inside the Score – This is a 9-minute feature that is all a visual look into the making of the film’s score and the unique ways the sounds of Smile were created. It’s really fun to watch how some of the sounds were made, and truly was a smart route to go for a movie like this.
Deleted Scenes – There are also some deleted scenes here that round up to 12-minutes in length. They also have optional commentary by Finn for those who want to hear why they didn’t make the cut.
Laura Hasn’t Slept – This is the short that got Finn noticed by studios and propelled him into a spot that made making Smile possible. There’s an introduction by Finn and the short is definitely worth watching once you’ve finished the feature piece.
Paramount Pictures Presents Smile. Written and Directed by: Parker Finn. Starring: Sosie Bacon, Jessie T. Usher, Kyle Gallner, Robin Weigert, Caitlin Stasey, Kal Penn, Rob Morgan, Gillian Zinser, Dora Kiss. Running time: 115 minutes. Rating: 14A. 4K Blu-ray Released: Dec. 13, 2022.
About Brendan Campbell
