SMILE: A Horror That Will Put A Smile On Your Face

What a year for cinema 2022 was — and for horror in particular. Terrifying stories, both old and new, lit up our screens, creating one horrifying feature after another. And as 2022 rounded the corner into fall, the hits just kept coming — especially in the instant horror hit Smile. To be honest, the trailer for Smile was alluring, its premise an intriguing twist on the subgenre of horror curses. Yet there was a reservation as the trailer was full of jump scares, so much so I feared the film had shown its hand before its run. Yet as writer and director Parker Finn has proven, Smile has so much more to offer.

Smile is a film of saturated horror, where the tension and the fear are given time to land and prove impossible to shake. And where the idea of facing your trauma and accepting its permanence reverberates through the film, escalating to its epic conclusion, Smile proves itself a solid horror induction.

Technically Sound

Smile leans heavily into it visual construction early on, beginning with an unknown depiction of death in the beginning and swiftly transporting the film to the hospital Dr. Rose Cotter (Susie Bacon, 13 Reasons Why) works at, its bright, vacant walls and spacious rooms seemingly welcoming and warm. As the safety of the hospital is shattered, so too are the visuals. This is not a film that strictly generates its fear in the anticipation that something is going to just “jump out.” Rather, it plays with its shadows, building frustration of fear, many times allowing the darkness to feel as though it is looking back at its central figure and, in turn, its audience.

Now don’t get me wrong, the film is littered with jumps scare. And while at times expected, Smile manages to keep you on the edge of your seat and packs a punch in its surprises. And this is where the film finds its strength: in its deeply rooted visuals and scares, leaning away from the crutch that can be the gore in a film of this construction. That is not to say there is no gore, but the times it is utilized is limited and precisely placed.

Much of its visuals find its success in the expression of its characters and construction of its framing. From camera pans and twisting scenery, there is a topsy turvy feeling that converges with Cristobal Tapia de Veer’s score. Hollow, eerie, distant, yet pulsating, the immersion of sight and sound is flawless.

Yet it is not just the camera pans and the haunting score, but also the intimacy created early on in the film between the characters that reinforces this idea of shattering. The beginning of the film welcomes a lot of closeups on each speaker within a conversation, inviting intimacy. However, it is the closeness of these moments that’s really set up to be shredded in an instant, broken like glass and impossible to be put back together.

Technically sound, Smile does struggle a bit in its transitions throughout the earlier half of the film. While it exercises patience in its transitions, the fear and uncertainty of each moment allowed to sink in, it too often at times feels dragged out. While at times necessary for the effectiveness of the film, the overuse of slow, methodically paced transitions does add a weight to the watching experience.

Traumatizing

Smile tackles a variety of issues, playing out horrifying visual metaphors to great effect. And alongside how easily it shatters the intimacy it presents, Smile is not afraid to shatter the presumed conventions of grief, trauma, and pain. Many of these deeper elements stand out in the film’s third act, writer and director Finn carefully and precisely revealing more information about the characters, their backstories, and the threat they face as the film progresses.

And where the power of the mind is a heavy-handed aspect of Smile, the film plays on our own perceptions of the mind. Much of what we decide and understand about Rose is shattered by a quiet yet poignant reveal at the film’s end. And while viewers watch the trauma of Smile‘s characters play out before us, the horror for its audience is coming to the understand that not everything heals.

Conclusion:

There are moments throughout Smile I found myself thinking back to It Follows. Throughout the film, as time is running out for Rose, the curse comes closer and closer to her, almost towering over her, awaiting its consumption — and then, of course, there’s the core conceit of a curse being passed from one person to the next. Yet even with the similarities in mind, Smile proves itself to be its own beast of a horror.

Smile was released in theaters on September 30, 2022.

Watch Smile