Rictus Grin

Movies: Smile

Smile, directed by Parker Finn, is a nerve-shattering horror movie that leaves you feeling empty and sad. It's one of many horror movies where a ghostly or demonic entity is a stand-in for trauma and mental illness, which is a tricky line for a scary movie to walk. Films like Lights Out and The Lodge have faced criticism in their depictions of mental illness. For example, in the 2016 film Lights Out, the scary ghoul that haunts the main character is a metaphor for depression. The film ends with the main character killing herself to protect her loved ones from the ghoul. While it may not be the intended message of the film, it seems to suggest that the family and friends of chronically depressed people are better off without them--a very, very dangerous message for folks struggling with suicidal thoughts. 

Similarly, trauma is at the heart of Smile and the ultimate message of the film, intended or not, seems to be "don't bother facing your trauma and making peace with your past, because it's all pointless anyway." Again, a severely dangerous message to be putting out there, especially during *gestures broadly* all this. That's not to say that films can't explore these dark feelings, just that it's something to be mindful of, especially given that this is a very popular movie that many people will see. And even though Smile works very well as a horror film, I ultimately have to dock it points for the way it handles trauma.

Now, onto the plot of the movie: Sosie Bacon (excellent in this role) plays Dr. Rose Cotter, a therapist at a psychiatric hospital. Rose encounters a patient, a young woman, who is absolutely terrified. The woman witnessed her professor complete suicide in front of her and now she is seeing something--something that is smiling at her, "but not like a friendly smile". When she begins screaming at Rose, Rose calls for help--but the young woman takes a piece of glass and, while smiling creepily, slices her neck from ear-to-ear.

Witnessing such an event would rattle anyone, even a professional like Rose, but Rose is more than unsettled. She, too, begins to see people staring at her, smiling unnervingly. She keeps having flashbacks to her childhood, when she watched her mother die of a drug overdose. She can't sleep. And within just a couple days, she is in a complete mental health crisis.

Sosie Bacon plays the role of a professional, put together woman slowing unraveling so perfectly, that it's almost more haunting than the many jump scares (and there are many) and creepy smiles in the movie. What's worse is that her sister and fiance don't believe her when she tries to convince them that she's seeing whatever the young woman saw. If there is a positive message in this film, it's the importance of believing people when they are having a mental crisis and not turning your back on them.

After doing some research with the help of her ex, who is a cop, Rose realizes that this chain of people killing themselves in front of other people goes back a long way. Only one man seems to have escaped the chain, and it's only because he killed someone else--in front of a woman who then went on to continue the chain. When Rose visits this man in prison, he explains that the entity needs trauma to feed on. Rose's only way out is to kill someone else in front of someone to the point where the witness is traumatized by the event and the entity jumps to them. Well, Rose isn't ready to commit murder to save herself. Instead, she holes up in her dilapidated childhood home to avoid other people and to face her demons.

Through flashbacks, we find out that Rose not only watched her mother die of an overdose, she had the opportunity to call for help and didn't. That guilt has been haunting her for decades. However, facing that guilt head on and forgiving that little girl who was scared and not at fault for her mother's decisions isn't enough to save Rose. The entity enters her and causes her to kill herself--right as her ex enters the home, effectively passing the curse on to him. Fin.

Pretty sad, right? Very hopeless. I don't mind hopeless movies but this one didn't sit right with me. I have to give Smile credit for being genuinely scary on multiple levels. The movie had tons of jump scares and creepy imagery, but the horror of watching Rose lose her mind and those closest to her turn away from her was probably the scariest thing of all. As I said above, this is truly a nerve-shattering, feel-bad movie. If you like horror, you'll probably find something about it to enjoy. 

Grade: C+