Source: IMDb
Smile is the new psychological horror film by upcoming director Parker Finn. The movie opens with a traumatic scene for the films’ protagonist, Dr. Rose Carter (Sosie Bacon) at an emergency facility. It is there where she treats Laura Weaver (Caitlin Stasey) a PHD student who is traumatized by watching her professor commit suicide in front of her. Now, Laura tells Dr. Carter that she is seeing people and the last thing she saw was a smile by her professor then he died. This sets off a series of events which changes Dr. Carter’s life. Dr. Carter begins to change and her boss, Dr. Morgan Desai (Kal Penn), her fiancée’ Trevor (Jessie T. Usher), her sister Holly (Gillian Zinser) and her therapist Dr. Madeline Northcott (Robin Wiegert) are all concerned about the changes in her personality.
Source: Paramount Pictures Youtube Channel
Sosie Bacon whose parents are Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon held her own and was a strong lead in this movie. You were pulling for her to find what is going on with her and if she can find out the mystery of how to end. Sosie carried us through her psychological discovery of not being healed from her childhood trauma thus the journey we go on with her. The editing of the movie is strong as well. There were many jump scares, one was so good I practically came out of my seat. The way that the editor cuts away from the scene created an unnecessary jump scare.
Smile is a solid horror movie that gives me an 80’s feel, like the movie Scanners where there is an unknown entity causing death and destruction. I came away satisfied with Smile and it had me jumping even at the end. The audience I watched it with had mixed reactions about the ending, probably because you could see it coming. Smile is a solid psychological horror movie whose theme deals with trauma and how unresolved trauma can take over our lives.