Smile (2022) Review
If I’m being honest, the concept of Smile feels inherently corny and cheap to me; the trailers don’t do a great job at expressing what kind of film it is either. A mental patient screaming “you’re going to die” in an attemptedly ominous manner isn’t terrifying; it’s contrived and obnoxious. So, despite the terrible marketing, Parker Finn has crafted a directorial horror debut that, though wears its themes heavily on its sleeves, manages to be effectively creepy where it counts; with a finale that will live inside audiences’ heads for months. The film’s thematic impact gets lost somewhere within the occasionally padded melodrama and jump scares; leaving something to be desired when Finn bites off more than he can chew. However, at its best, this feels like a horror film straight from the heyday of the 2000s; a concept playful enough to find its own franchise. It doesn’t nearly reach the heights of its inspirations (Hereditary and It Follows mainly) but manages to be a fun-filled fright that finds balance within its slow-burn antics and jump-scare mentality alike.
Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) is a workaholic trauma therapist who witnesses a first-time patient slit her own throat, ominously smiling at her before doing so. Cotter has struggled for decades with her own mother’s suicide and this real-life grief becomes intertwined with the supernatural entity that persists in haunting her. The film itself becomes heavy-handed in its messaging; with a reveal explaining that the entity “feeds off trauma.” There’s a lack of nuance within its themes and, occasionally, I wish the film delved more into the maximalist horror endeavor it ends up becoming. In turn, it feels tonally confused; unknowing if it wants to be a “serious horror film” or one that wants to have a bit of grimey fun. And why not both? It’s possible yet I can’t help but feel Smile ends up feeling muddled in attempting to do so. The film also deeply fails in creating a proper tension between Cotter and her fiance (Jessie T. Usher); who ends up getting sidelined by her ex (Kyle Gallner) solely due to the plot requiring a police officer to proceed. This core relationship contains the true dramatic tension within the film and it fizzles away without any true closure. So even though there’s nothing inherently unique about this horror narrative – it still succeeds thanks to Finn’s direction and Bacon’s strong performance.
The film also falls into the common horror conundrum of hitting the same narrative beat for a majority of its runtime. After the horror itself is revealed, Finn meanders too long into building a cheap melodrama instead of what he obviously does best here; insanely well-directed moments of psychedelic horror. And that horror itself does not require this formal narrative structure Finn attempts to hammer home; leaving me yearning for something weirder and tonally consistent. By the end, though I love the finale, it all feels too disjointed to make the impact it’s going for; neither completely working as a trippy horror film or a thematically resonant one.
That said – I really enjoyed Smile. I think the setup and finale are gripping and wish that it was able to keep its engaging momentum throughout its runtime. It’s obviously inspired by many horror films of the past yet it manages to stand out thanks to Finn’s unique direction; hoping he is able to refine it for his next feature. Sosie Bacon is still an up-and-coming talent but her performance here proves she’s got what it takes to carry an entire feature film herself. And finally, the film owes a huge deal to Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr. of Amalgamated Dynamics; for whom without their brilliant practical effect work, the film would not reach the heights of its truly haunting scares. Thanks to positive test screenings, Smile was able to avoid a streaming-exclusive release and has already made more than double its budget at the domestic box office. Films like this are best taken in as a collective experience; something (sadly) Prey missed out on as well as the inevitable fate of David Bruckners’s Hellraiser. At the end of the day, we need more films like Smile and Barbarian to drag people back into seeing original movies; especially ones that aren’t afraid to get down and dirty.
