Smile (film): An almost perfect horror film

I struggle to find good films in the horror genre because in my mind, it is one of the most difficult type of film to make something new, fresh, while also being genuinely scary. I had heard of Smile for quite some time but never got around to watching it until last night right before bed. This movie was absolutely terrifying to the point where I looked away from the screen a few times because I could feel that something really scary was about to happen.... and boy did the scary come at me.

They don't overuse the tactic in making this spooky and they rely on a nice assortment of tactics to make you feel like you need to look away from the screen or cover your eyes. Films that are over-reliant on "jump scares" get old pretty fast because this is just a trick using sound and something that happens fast and while some people like that rush, you do start to expect it after a while and that takes away from the story.

In Smile they use a perfect mix of psychological horror, dread, as well as some action scares that you almost never see coming. This keeps the film tense from start to finish. I am not a huge fan of the ending though and feel as though that was the only part of this film that was a bit weak and could have been done better.

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I know that this movie impacted me a great deal because just looking at that image sent chills up my body right now. How someone was able to take something that is supposed to be cheerful and turned it into something horrifying is really masterful.

Apparently this movie was based on an 11-minute short film and some of the negative professional critic comments about the movie stem from the fact that the critics were already familiar with the source material and therefore were very judgmental about the 2 hour finished product. I suppose this is understandable but I think that most people are completely unaware of the source material.

Without giving way too much of the plot, which is kind of important to the fear that ends up being a part of your viewing experience I'll just say this: A psychologist with a bit of a harrowing past has dedicated her life to helping those with severe mental disorders. One day a young woman comes into her office after she undergoes an episode that nearly turned violent. This woman is clearly terrified of anyone that is around her but the calm Dr. Rose is attempting, as you would expect, to approach this woman in a calm and clinical manner. Just like any psychologist would do if faced with a situation like this, she doesn't believe the patient's side of the story and instead attempts to explain it away in a professional way. She is just trying to do her job and help after all. Things turn for the worse when the young woman completely freaks out in front of the doctor and then commits suicide in the meeting room using a vase shard to cut her own throat while smiling at the doctor the entire time.

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Without context, that image above would just seem like a regular smiling picture, perhaps even a photo on someone's Tinder profile but in the film this terrifying scene showcases the artistry of the film's creators and director and how they were aiming to do something different and for the most part, achieved that end.

Dr. Rose starts to take on the attributes that the patient was attempting to explain to her in the office, and at first she is calm and clinical about the entire thing but quickly starts to realize that this "disorder" is not something that can be explained away and that the young woman who came into her office was being genuine and that there is something very evil at play here.

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It is just crazy to me how they were able to take something that is normally associated with being pleasant, like a smile, and turn it into one of the most terrifying things I have seen in a while. You spend the entire time watching this film wondering what sort of crazy thing is going to happen next and they do a very good job of making you believe that this would destroy the mind of even the most calm and professional person in existence. The cool, calm, and intelligent Dr. Rose quickly descends into madness and none of her friends and family believe her too. This is a bit of a self-made prison on her own part because she devoted her life's work to finding out reasons why people who appear crazy are wrong and now she IS one of them.

This movie scared the crap out of me and will be something that I talk about for a while because they did almost everything very well with this. From the sound to the music to the setups to the scenery, things are just fantastic. However there were a few aspects of it that kind of irked me.

For one thing I really don't like this trend with directors to do establishing shots by having a drone do something they think is creative such as show us the area we are dealing with by having the camera mounted to the bottom of the drone so everything is upside down. I don't know who decided this was a good creative and artistic thing to do but it isn't impressive, we all know how drones work, and I just find it lazy and annoying. Many films have been doing this lately and I want them stop it.

Also, Rose has been a nurturing force her entire life and career yet in just a few days of being exposed to this traumatic situation, basically everyone that she knows turns their back on her and is no longer interested in helping her. I'd like to think that my family and friends (as well as most people's) would be a bit more willing to help out even I completely lost the plot for a week. I suppose this was necessary because we do need Rose to be alone in order for the dread and horror to build up to a pinnacle, but I think there could have been a better way to accomplish this than by having all the people that she has spent, presumable, decades building up, just completely abandon her once she starts acting a bit loopy.

Also, and I will not get into any specifics about this: I feel as though there are a lot of ways they could have made the ending better than they did. They kind of telegraph the ending about 3/4 of the way through the film and I was disappointed that it ended up ending exactly the way that I thought it would. For a film that was this inventive in almost every other aspect, this was a huge letdown for me.

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The actors in this film are phenomenal for the most part and this is particularly true for anyone that is or has been afflicted by what Rose currently has haunting her now. The sheer terror and panic that all of them exhibit when faced with what Rose is now suffering is a testament to how talented an actor each of these people actually are. You can feel the intense panic in their voices and mannerisms as they seem prepared to do literally anything to get away from what they are aware is the most awful thing that a person could possibly be afflicted with. This is especially true with the woman who plays Dr. Rose who's real name is Sosie Bacon and before you ask, yes, she is related to Kevin Bacon.

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Watching Dr. Rose quickly deteriorate from calm and collective psychologist to apparently raving mad lunatic over a few days (in terms of the movie timeline) shows that this Sosie lady has some serious acting chops and I look forward to seeing her perform in other things in the future.

Should I watch it?

Well, this is one I am actually going to warn you about. This might be a bit too intense for some people out there and I will say tread cautiously. I am not easily frightened but this movie had me pretty damn scared in my bedroom with the lights off. This is definitely not something you want to show to any children unless you want them to be traumatized. That warning aside, this is the most refreshingly original horror film that I have seen in quite some time. The makers of the film were justly rewarded by pulling in over $200 million on a $17 million investment. Good for them! It is deserved.

_{You can legally stream this on Hulu and Paramount+. It can also be rented on a wide variety of other platforms}