Do It With A “Smile”

Paramount

Horror has a way of taking the normal, the banal and turning it into something else entirely. Film is littered with this throughout its history. I guess it was really only a matter of time before the most common thing, that’s meant to denote a feeling of welcome, would become anything but that.

The Paramount Pictures film “Smile”, based on the short film “Laura Hasn’t Slept” by Parker Finn, is a deeply disturbing and unsettling film that slowly works its way under your skin and, ironically, refuses to leave even after the credits have ended. I learned that, and while I’m okay with it overall, it’s safe to say dark spaces and smiles are a bit more ruined for me than before. Granted, who likes dark spaces anyway?

Originally it took me awhile to even learn of this film. To truly know what it was about and seek out a trailer. “Barbarian” was like that too, and I think I may have even watched both trailers close together. I’m glad I did. I got so much more than I expected, and depending on what writer/director Finn decides to do next, he could very well have a place among the strongest of storytellers. Funnily enough, now with this film having been seen, I feel that it and “Barbarian” are on opposite sides of a horror spectrum I didn’t realize existed today. Two massive hit films that balance each other out and provide more than enough fun. How often do you see that?

Put On A Happy Face

Paramount

So, I’ll get it out of the way quickly. Sadly, in order to do this, I must own up to something I don’t acknowledge often. I try not to be that person. I don’t like being swayed by reviews, even headlines. If it’s a film that sounds awful or the trailer looks absolutely dreadful and I know I’m never going to see it, or something else like that, then sure, I’ll gobble up the reviews. In those cases, negative reviews are my favorite. Take a look at “Halloween Ends” for instance, which fascinatingly enough, I didn’t see any trailers for and barely took notice of the TV spots. And then it came out and it was all downhill from there. With this film, it’s only largely been positive with the exception of one thing. The comparison to so many films from before. Notably “It Follows” and “The Ring”, to name a few. My issue with hearing this, especially in the last 20 hours of it hitting VOD and Paramount+, is that that was all I could think of at a certain point. I immediately understood why this was an issue of sorts. While not completely distracting, it certainly was enough of a nuisance while watching. Do I think it affected my view and experience with this film? Thankfully no. Would I have likely come to this conclusion on my own? Probably, but that only solves some of the problem. For a film that’s otherwise quite good, this one thing is the kind of thorn that’s hard to shake, no matter how many viewings are had or how much time has passed.

While this film’s got some phenomenal strengths, it can’t be ignored that it does follow a lot of the same beats as most horror, classic or otherwise. There’s a mystery that draws, drags and fills one with dread. There’s research bits that must be tackled or the mystery goes nowhere. There’s a character who everyone thinks is crazy. Did I miss any? However, these aren’t actually negatives. In some ways, it was likely unavoidable. For me, that’s okay. Often enough, it’s not about reinventing something, but more how a writer and/or director works with what has been done so many times before. Take two home invasion thrillers for instance. “The Strangers” and “Hush”. Neither did anything truly new or all that different. It was the execution that set them far above many others and still makes them effective and fun to watch. A pretty strong case can be made here that while not all that new, the setup and execution worked wonders. I never stopped being interested. I wanted answers and the more we got them and they turned out to be quite disturbing, the more I became invested. Down a dark, twisted rabbit hole. Couple that with everything else that worked for this film, and you’ve got something that works far better and more than it probably should.

Somehow the slow and slightly misleading approach to suspense building and the general scares alone paid off. Sometimes it seemed like things were going to be of a standard variety, but they weren’t or certainly didn’t stay that way for long. Every shot and setup in this film seemed far more deliberate. Building paranoia (which we didn’t need to sell the increasingly fragile state of Sosie Bacon’s Rose) became easy as everyday items all took on menacing appearances. This led to the real menacing and frightening things we did see or thought we saw. When it came to building the fear, an expert hand was shown. The number of times I was so focused on one thing or another only to be surprised from a different direction is something I can’t count. Even now, trying to remember a fear building scene, I’m not even sure of what was going on. Bacon’s in the kitchen drinking something and in the shock of everything, the relative darkness in her house, there may have been something there. It was set up perfectly too. We’re just on her. She’s there and slowly her focus shifts. But, did I in fact see that? Did she think she saw something? If I hadn’t been more tired than I’d expected perhaps I’d know. But whatever it was, that sequence was effective. I felt uneasy and did jump at the appropriate moment. The rest of the film carried on this way, so even when there weren’t big, loud jump scares, there was usually a slow build of dread and uncertainty creeping up from behind. The eerie and anxiety ridden score that floats in and out, subtly moving you along and amplifying your fear, carried its share of the film and made the quieter moments just as effective.

If this film does have one genuine weakness, which I’ve not heard of yet or looked up (if I even do), it’s how the film ends. Not its literal ending, which will likely lead to something most people won’t want, but the finale. When we’re finally meeting this thing in full. That right there is an issue, but Finn takes things further and only makes it worse. I referenced “Barbarian” earlier, and with this film’s ending, it suddenly made me love that film even more. Bonkers and bat shit crazy works for some films, but not this one. Or, at least how it was presented. Somehow this film’s creature design ceased being scary and creepy. As the finale went on it eventually morphed into something that reminded me of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” There was a comical aspect to it. Fortunately I wasn’t doing any laughing, likely due to the rest of the film’s overall execution, but it was still hard to take it seriously. I was scared, but not really because of the entity. This film got so much right and yet, still missed a crucial mark. A crucial mark that sadly harkens back to “It Follows” and how it definitely left things far more up in the air and thus, made for a better ending.

Effective, Disturbing and Creepy Trailers:

Originally Released: Sept. 30, 2022

Written and directed: Parker Finn

Starring: Sosie Bacon, Jessie T. Usher, Kyle Gallner, Robin Weigert, Caitlin Stasey, Kal Penn and Rob Morgan