I remember not really registering much about the initial trailer for Smile. It seemed like a pretty generic, Blumhouse-style horror movie. Maybe part of it was because Blumhouse actually did their own “creepy smile” movie a few years ago, Truth or Dare. But the trailer for Smile just kind of had that look, you know? The kind of sleek, generic look that signals a movie that might not be terrible, but certainly isn’t going to be particularly good. It just screams “middle of the road” to me. So, it was surprising to me when the movie started to roll out and I started to hear that it was better than expected. I decided to go see it and I’m so glad I did.
Smile turned out to truly be one of the best surprises in a long time, a genuinely fun horror movie that was also surprisingly dark and even emotionally heavy at times. Writer-director Parker Finn makes this a movie about trauma and the way trauma is self-perpetuating as well as a movie about super-creepy smiling people. Is this the most insightful movie about trauma you’re ever going to see? Of course not, but it’s better than it has any real right to be for a couple of reasons. I’m glad that Finn decided to go this route with the script, of course, because it adds a little needed depth. I also can’t praise Sosie Bacon enough for her performance in the lead role as the haunted Rose Cotter (great horror character name, by the way). She brings real weight to the movie and with a weaker performance in that central role, the movie wouldn’t have worked as well. The script has plenty of tropes (not that this is entirely a problem for me) and the story beats are very familiar. But Bacon’s performance is one that I couldn’t look away from and she kept the movie grounded and serious in all the right ways.
The movie is also extremely entertaining, however, and genuinely scary, even terrifying at times. I certainly don’t want to make it seem like Smile is some sort of super-intellectual, ultra-harrowing exploration of trauma in the way Hereditary was an exploration of grief or whatever. Smile is a good time for the horror fan. Caitlin Stasey isn’t in the movie very much, but she steals every scene she’s in by virtue of being the most convincingly psychopathic smiler. It is, by the way, the right decision to leave the smiling up to the actors and not tweak things with CGI or filters in the way Truth or Dare did. It makes the movie just feel less cheesy. But, of course, some people are better at creepy smiling than others and so I do have to give a shout out to Stasey who I found to be extremely unsettling. The movie also has the best jump scare I’ve seen since the original Conjuring’s “hide & clap” sequence, which is like ten years old now, believe it or not. It involves Rose listening to a recording on her laptop and the scene as a whole is a great example of what Parker Finn is able to do with the movie in general: he sets up an obvious jump scare and then just cranks the tension tighter and tighter until, even though you knew it was coming, it scares the **** out of you when it hits.
Do I have high hopes for Smile 2? Well, kind of. It has the potential to do a lot of things wrong and, as good as the script for Smile is, so much of it does depend on that central performance from Bacon who will, of course, be absent for this sequel. But writer-director Finn is back which is a good sign. End of the day, I’m super glad that I got to see Smile in a theater with a decent sized crowd that was ready to be scared; that’s going to be the best way to see Smile 2 as well, I’m sure, so I’ll definitely check it out in theaters. Regardless of where the sequel goes, however, I’m content calling the first movie a masterpiece that pulls off both superficial thrills and deeper disturbances to perfection. 4 stars.
tl;dr – Sosie Bacon’s fantastic lead performance and Parker Finn’s surprisingly thoughtful script help anchor a movie that also delivers superficial thrills; way better than I was expecting. 4 stars.