Smile Cleverly Reinforces The Power Of Transmissible Curses

 WARNING: This review contains minimal Spoilers

     

    With modern horror films, it can be said that the best ones are those which are atmospheric in addition to their stories being carried by the compelling performances of their main leads. Combined with some genuinely creepy visuals and a clever plot, audiences are given a frightening horror experience that exceedingly beats expectations which is the case with Paramount Pictures Smile. The newest psychological horror thriller possesses all the right elements to make it work as being an effectively entertaining horror-filled experience with its main lead Sosie Bacon delivering a terrific breakthrough performance. 

      Based on a short story, Smile has therapist Rose Carter (Sosie Bacon) being tormented by a curse she inherited after witnessing the traumatic death of her patient. To beat the curse that's taken control of her life, she must confront her troubling past in order to overcome the evil force. Smile is a prime example of how to take something small and blow it up with the films concept being fully realized in such a thrilling fashion. From start to finish, the film grabs audiences and places them at the edge of their seat as they anxiously wait to see what unfolds next. Although it's not the most original of horror stories, Smile makes fantastic usage of it's source material and paints a unique portrait of trauma that serves as being one of 2022's better horror films. 

      A key component that makes Smile work so effectively is the brilliant performances of its cast. Sosie Bacon delivers a powerhouse performance as therapist Dr. Rose Carter with Bacon wonderfully conveying her characters paranoia, fear, and frustration with trying to convince others of the frightening occurrence that's happening around her while still coping with her troubled past. Bacon's performance is key here and she adds an extra layer to the story with her characters vulnerability. Kyle Gallner does solid as Rose's ex, Joel, a police detective who responds to her patients death and turns out to be the only one who believes Rose regarding her ordeal. Caitlin Stacey impresses with her brief role as Rose's dishelveled and paranoid patient Laura Weaver, who witnessed her professor die by suicide and becomes tormented by the evil entity. Jessie T. Usher does well as Rose's fiance Trevor, whose convinced that she's gone insane. Gillian Zinser is effective as Rose's sister Holly who also shares the same belief as the latter's fiance regarding her sister going crazy and their relationship being severely damaged as a result. The rest of the cast deliver noteworthy performances, including Kal Penn as Rose's friend and colleague Dr. Morgan Desai, Robin Weigert as Dr. Madeleine Northcott, Just Reyes as Victoria Northcott, and Rob Morgan as one of the curses previous victims, Robert Talley. Overall, Smiles cast is terrific with everyone bringing a sense of realism and excitement to the story while making everything feel terrifyingly creepy.

      Directed by Parker Finn in his feature film debut, he does a commendable job of building up some solid suspense and darkly chilling moments including the films shocking opening sequence involving Laura's character being possessed by the demonic spirit. The films moments of gore are presented in a fashion that makes them appear as being extremely explicit with examples including face-slicing, face-ripping, and one instance including a dead cat wrapped inside a child's birthday present. Although the story is one that's slow-burning, Finn keeps the tension steadily building with the audience witnessing Rose's slow descent into madness as everything that's connected to her life is cut loose. With the cinematography and choice of lighting, the film is given an atmospheric mood and look that makes it look like it would fit right at home with early 2000 Psychological horror thrillers like The Ring or The Grudge with a touch of M. Night Shyamalan. As far as directing goes, Finn does an admirable job with creating a terrifyingly creepy atmosphere that generated a great deal of mystery behind the plot while managing to get his actors to craft the perfectly creepy smiles that ultimately define the film. 

      Along with skillful directing, Smile's scriptwriting also finds itself on solid ground with the story placing trauma front and center as the films central theme. Rose's character is presented as being strong-willed yet vulnerable to fighting the evil entity surrounding her in addition to still struggling in dealing with her mother's suicide. The screenplay builds on this dynamic by presenting several flashbacks between young Rose and her mother to give insight into their relationship. The writers do a strong job of making Rose's character sympathetic to audiences with them wanting her to beat the curse. As far as evil entities go, Smile's manages to be fairly creative and effective, despite feeling a tad similar to previous ones seen before in other horror films like The Ring. The stories side characters are fairly well-fleshed out despite sometimes feeling like generic character tropes that generally accommodate horror stories pertaining to demonic forces. Despite other characters being fleshed out, the story remains primarily focused on Rose's arc with key subplots being ones involving her sister and their different responses to their mothers death, the relationship between Carter and her ex who ultimately becomes the only one that believes her claims, and the estranged relationship between Rose and her mother. With these multiple subplots added, the script finds a way of appropriately balancing them all out while creating enough mystery behind the evil force to make it work as being terrifying to audiences. 

      If there's any criticism that can be directed at Smile, it's that it's concept often feels derivative of other works within the genre with certain plot and character beats giving off a deja Vu feel for audiences. Despite that criticism, Smile offers a fresh face of terror for horror fans with the latter being bound to be genuinely creeped out by its concept. Though it does nothing to reinvent the wheel, Smile succeeds in both thrilling and terrifying audiences while giving grins a frightening new look. 

Final Verdict: A must see for horror fans