Smile
It seemed like for months, the advertisements for Smile were inescapable. They would play before every film at the theater, in every commercial break, and even campaigned at baseball games. Hats off to their marketing team but with its release, audiences won’t have to suffer through those commercials again, however, that means I did have to suffer through the entire film. In a way, the film was accurately marketed given that my expectations for it were spot on: a cliche, unoriginal horror film that high school teens will flock to and instantly make the studio its money back.
Smile follows Rose (Sosie Bacon), a psychiatrist, after she witnesses a patient’s suicide and suspects that the event has been caused by an “evil entity” taking the form of a smiling human. Having witnessed the traumatizing event, Rose is now the next victim of the entity and is determined to uncover the origin of the phenomenon. The film has a palpable atmosphere similar to that of a creepypasta, viral horror short stories popularized in the early 2010s. However, it falls short of what made those stories popular in the first place: originality. Smile’s premise takes more than a few notes from 2014’s It Follows which also revolves around a similar idea. Not only does Smile even goes as far as to take the same lore and rules that apply to the “big bad” of the film but even goes as far as blatantly ripping off a shot from It Follows.
Sosie Bacon doing triple duty as psychiatrist/investigator/final girl.
Already relying on the derivative idea of “creepy smiling” as the crux of the horror found in this film, Smile lends itself to yet even more horror tropes throughout its runtime. Including a mentally ill person repeatedly telling someone that they’re going to die among a plethora of cheap jumpscares. When Smile isn’t relying on a jumpscare for its scare factor, it does have moments of gore that will shock and satisfy horror fans. Similarly, the climax ventures from the horror stereotypes riddled in the rest of the film which will have the audience second-guessing themselves before unfortunately, falling back to old habits and ending on an expected whimper.
On the contrary, Sosie Bacon does a great job stepping into the leading role of the film. Bacon juggles the subtlety of the suffocating trauma her character faces before going full “scream queen” mode after being subjected to haunting deaths, visions, and gaslighting. The rest of the performances in Smile are forgettable; not necessarily “bad” but nothing noteworthy.
One of Rose’s psychiatric patients, Carl (Jack Sochet) seemingly possessed by the entity and creepily smiling - the film’s heavily relied on source of horror.
Where Smile does attempt to set itself apart is its unique camerawork that is fairly unusual for a major studio popcorn horror. Director Parker Finn and cinematographer Charlie Serroff highlight symmetry in shots that incite unsettlement within the audience despite their visual appeal as well as add an unexpected liveliness to the movement of the camera. The editing in the film offers smooth transitions between scenes and accentuates the brisk rhythm in scenes with heightened stakes. As for the score and sound design of Smile, it certainly has its own glitchy, digitally distorted soundscape unlike anything in recent memory and adds a sense of discomfort to the visuals. That being said there is one questionable artistic liberty pertaining to the title card ingrained in my head. Insanely out of place and inserted for pure shock value, it is truly something that has to be seen to understand and believe.
In what’s been such a strong year for horror thus far, it’s inevitable that we’d encounter a dud. Smile attempts to lay claim to a spot in the elevated horror conversation, despite it already being achieved effectively and more nuanced in 2014’s It Follows. It predictably falls short with its cliches, overuse of ineffective jumpscares, and reeks of unoriginality. If there’s one thing Smile did achieve, is making me do exactly that. Smile. Not with it, but at all of its faults that ultimately had me chuckling in my seat.
Verdict: In a year filled with original, knockout horror films, Smile fails to bring anything new to the table and falls victim to cliches aside from an exhilarating finale. Expectedly, Smile is a Nick Skip.