Ever since its forty-second teaser that was released before the box office hit Top Gun: Maverick, Smile has been on my radar as one of my highest anticipated horror films for this year. The premise is easy enough, our main character Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon), after seeing a terrible incident involving one of her patients, can not seem to escape a dark force that disguises itself as people she knows with terrifying, sadistic smiles on their faces.
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Smile is a nice mix of originality while also a nod to other horror films that have come before, the most recent being It Follows. The ideas are nothing ground breaking but the journey this movie takes leads to a payoff that mirrors my favorite type of horror endings. It takes its time developing the story and diving into the theme of trauma. There are terrifying and creepy moments with a large portion being a mix of mystery/thriller vibes. I was caught up in the mystery Rose and her ex-boyfriend Joel try to solve by identifying the pattern between this chain of disturbing events. The scares are entertaining, even if they aren’t as terrifying as I would have hoped.
The way Smile took on the theme of trauma was a little too heavy-handed for my taste as I prefer messages that allow the audience to do a little digging for. The structure was a little repetitive following the “something’s wrong, no you’re crazy, no you don’t understand you have to believe me” trope but I could look past that because of what else the film had to offer.
However, there is something about seeing a horror movie with a large crowd where everyone is enjoying themselves, regardless of their thoughts on the movie by the end. I can’t remember a unanimous enjoyment for horror in a crowd since Get Out, which shows that regardless of its hits and misses, Smile is an incredibly fun time at the movies.
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