Smile - Doug Reviews

The horror film is starting off October on a proper scary note, but does Doug think this movie is worth the scares? Let's take a look at Smile.

Smile is a 2022 American psychological horror film written and directed by Parker Finn (in his feature directorial debut), based on his 2020 short film Laura Hasn't Slept. The film stars Sosie Bacon, Jessie T. Usher, Kyle Gallner, Caitlin Stasey, Kal Penn and Rob Morgan. The plot follows a therapist who appears to be losing her mind after witnessing a bizarre traumatic event involving a patient.

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[jamlym]

I think the ending kind of works. Rose overcame her inner demons, but she didn't overcome the smile demon.

[rennydesu]

I really liked how this movies setting wasn't just a house in the middle of the forest for the most part.
Seeing Rose in the middle of a city, hospital, or party and still being haunted and isolated brings the fear level up a notch.

Nothing is worse than having all those people around you but still no one who can help.

[AceHufflepuff]

I know EXACTLY what he's talking about with the ending. When I realized what the thing feeds off of that whole "is it in her head is it not" thing makes it SO much worse. I mentioned this in another review, but the more I think on it, it makes sense why it would go after people physically not just psychologically. It wants to BREAK YOU to the point where you just snap. And while I'm not sure how I feel about ANOTHER horror movie having a fake out ending only for the REAL ending to happen the way it does, it makes sense. Not everyone can have an ending that's all SMILES now can they?

[pyron]

SPOILERS

In my opinion there was a concept that I feel like they skimmed over in this movie. About halfway through the movie they reveal how the entity survives and passes, saying something like how it travels through death and it feeds on trauma.
I fully thought they were gonna have the kid get infected since the main girl accidentally gives him her dead cat as a present (there's the death) and later the mother says that the woman traumatized her son (the trauma) I was expecting everything to stop for the main girl she was gonna be happy until she noticed that the boy is talking about the things she's seen and maybe the movie would end with her letting the boy kill her to rid him if the entity at the cost of her life

[TheCaptainwooo]

I see what you’re saying but the way I interpreted this movie is less a metaphor for mental illness and trauma and more a metaphor for how people react to people with mental illness and trauma and how we look to explain things that are sometimes impossible to explain. And with the ending it makes more sense when you see it this way because the main character is saying “oh this is what it all means this is what it’s about” but really she has no idea. She’s attempting to explain the unexplainable. I like that we really got no idea of what this entity is or why it does what it does. And yeah I think they added humor into the film on purpose to it felt like a modern Sam Raimi film to me. Horror but with little notches of comedy. It’s one of my favorite horror movies of the year and I went in with l o w expectations.

[TheCouchPotatoWatchesTV]

I really love the direction horror has gone in the last decade, it’s very atmospheric and moody and stylized, a creeping horror that plays on madness and emotion and strong imagery (not gore). The movies tend to stay with you for a long time. It’s the kind of scary where you look over your shoulder for days after. Hereditary was one of my favorite horror movies ever but it scared me so bad I can’t watch it again 😂

[DisneyDancer]

YES. My ENTIRE theatre laughed after the stabbing scene. Like. It was very much one of the moments that you probably weren’t supposed to giggle at, but dang it if we didn’t all just burst into laughter.

[claytonrios]

Creepy smiles usually get me quite unnerved. But thankfully this film handles them way better than something like Truth or Dare.

[sumspring]

I kinda liked that this movie was essentially The Ring and It Follows, then the ending made a serious effort to be like "Actually no, she's been cursed, she's DEFINITELY dying."

And lo and behold...

[Gamerguy-udzo]

I honestly think the scariest smiles I have ever seen this year were in that markiplier video where he was advertising that fake product "Burn in" and pictures of people's smiles stretching behind there necks. That would honestly be scarier if you saw it in real life.

[weirdguy]

I feel that it's a horror movie. An ending where the hero doesn't succeed is a pretty common outcome. It's just a bummer that it had to happen to her.

[themelodiva]

First off justice for Mustache, second I feel like the ending did work in the way that even if you are able to face your trauma, it's always going to be there and you can never truly escape it. It's always going to be there even if you can manage it day to day.

[lizzybragg]

The exact stabbing scene you're describing is when the whole theater started giggling after. It definitely wasn't just you

[jonathancross]

Spoiler




The ending was good and bad for me, only because i liked rose and wanted her to live, but really just because she overcame her past trauma doesnt mean she got rid of the smile entity still inside of her, its the fact that she earned her peace that makes it all the more tragic, but man did i LOVE seeing its true form

[DuelaDent]

I was really enjoying this until that ending. What awful, horrible unfortunate implications it wrings out, it accidentally tosses out any message the film was trying to get across for the sake of a cheap scare. Thank you so much, you’re the only person I’ve seen so far addressing the unfortunate implications it brings with it.

[MaverickChristian]

SPOILERS



9:31 to - 12:19. I agree; I thought the ending was problematic for the same reason. The movie overall was good (cinematography, acting, creepy atmosphere, etc.), but I didn't like the ending. The movie would have worked as an allegory for facing trauma and not running from it if Rose, after overcoming the trauma, really did defeat the entity. By my lights, it would have made the ending much more satisfying.

[TheSpaceHipster]

TOTALLY agree about the ending. They had a fantastic ending that wrapped up their commentary so well, and then the "real" ending happened, and I left the theatre so disappointed that they did not just end it where it felt like they wanted to.

[CanriScrub]

I wish the ending was better. I thought the monster was going to attach itself to the little kid that she traumatized after she thought she defeated it

[jackbluepirate]

How much do you bet Doug would have been one of those actor guys at the baseball games who promoted the movie...

[Resoundinglyavergage]

I actually liked the ending. I was hoping that she would beat the monster and that no one would visit her mother's house. Even when the police officer came, I was hoping that he would have been smart enough to turn away at the end. It definitely leaves room for a sequel and the officer has a really good advantage of taking this monster on.