A One Mann’s Movies review of “Smile” (2022).
I remember that one of the early horror films I saw with an “18” certificate (or actually “X” certificate in those days, just before it changed) was a rather unpleasantly ‘rapey’ film called “The Entity” in 1982. Barbara Hershey was a woman stalked by a malicious invisible being. Since then I have seen no end of “possession” films, and “Smile” is the latest. Rather like “The Mask”, here the entity gets to jump from person to person wreaking havoc… so perhaps a generous 2/10 for the originality of the story. Thus, how you have to judge these films is the quality of the film-making. And “Smile” actually stood out for me as having been pretty well made.
I saw this as a part of a #CineworldUnlimited preview, but I’ve been a bit delinquent in writing this one up: so the film actually opens in UK cinemas today, 28th September 2022.
Bob the Movie Man Rating(s):
Plot Summary:
Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) is a hardworking emergency psychologist in a city hospital. There is no “normal” day for her with every patient presenting something different. But when a young PhD student (Caitlyn Stacey) dramatically performs suicide in front of her, Rose gets dragged into a terrifying week-long ordeal when her nicely ordered world comes completely off the rails. Can her dashing fiancé Trevor (Jessie T. Usher) or her police officer ex Joel (Kyle Gallner) save her from her own spiral of destruction.
Certification:
Talent:
Starring: Sosie Bacon, Jessie T. Usher, Kyle Gallner, Caitlyn Stacey, Kal Penn, Robin Weigert.
Directed by: Parker Finn.
Written by: Parker Finn.
Twitter Handles: #SmileMovie.
“Smile” Review:
Positives:
- From the Cineworld Twitter responses to this, it seems to have had a mixed reception. But I thought it was done with some style. The combination of inverted and rotating visuals and a percussive and disturbing soundtrack by Cristobal Tapia de Veer ramped the creepiness factor up to 11 for me at times. And some of the jump scares got me!
- Although I had a few issues with the story (see below), there are some nice touches in the screenplay that I liked. Rose in particular feels like a nicely rounded-out character: a neat little touch, during a shower scene, was a subliminal view of a tattoo of a tree bending, rather than breaking, in a gale. Nicely sums up the lady.
- I thought Sosie Bacon, daughter of Kevin, really did a cracking job playing Rose. I found her very believable as the professional but workaholic doctor, which made her acting of the increasingly unhinged woman-on-the-edge particularly impressive.
Negatives
- The actions of the ‘entity’ didn’t seem entirely consistent. The basis of the film was around characters creepily smiling at Rose. But sometimes these seemed to be existing people and sometimes they seemed to be imaginary people (e.g. Laura describing her “long-dead grandpa”). And sometimes the events were physical and sometimes just in her head. And sometimes she visited people (e.g. one of the victim’s widows) where nothing unpleasant happened at all: what? was the entity taking a nap?
- The ending I found to be somewhat underwhelming. I didn’t hate it, but I thought it was trying too hard to set up for a sequel.
- The trailer is TRULY AWFUL in providing spoilers for the film. You find yourself ticking off the trailer scenes as you go. And one of the scenes in the trailer (involving Rose’s sister (Gillian Zinser)) completely ruins one of the jump scares, (rather stupid as it may be).
Summary Thoughts on “Smile”:
Unoriginal ‘possession-style’ horror film, helped along by some quirky visuals and a well-crafted soundscape. As a fairly by-the-book horror film, I was well-entertained.
Trailer:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcDK7lkzzsU . As above, if at all possible AVOID watching the trailer as it full of spoilers. Once again, I can only again bemoan the lost art of the teaser trailer, and I would refer any film-makers to the excellent trailer for Ridley Scott’s “Alien” from 1979. Watch and Learn. WATCH AND LEARN!
