Here’s a tip for horror-movie protagonists: if you experience several spooky events within 24 hours, please call a priest for an exorcism. What’s the point of running around telling people you aren’t insane while you come across like a complete lunatic?
Oh well, such is the trope of the genre. Horror films try to make mundane things scary by association – see Stephen King’s “It” terrorising entire generations with clowns and red balloons.
The latest scarefest to hit cinemas, “Smile”, is clearly trying to do the same with the simple act of moving one’s facial muscles.
Helmed by newbie director Parker Finn, the film follows Dr Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon, daughter of Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick), a psychiatrist who finds herself the victim of a dreadful curse.
After witnessing the bizarre and grisly suicide of a patient, she finds herself being stalked by an entity that appears in human form smirking from ear to ear.
The idea of using a smile as a scare is not without merit: smiling creepily at someone is one way to have the cops called on you. And just look at Batman’s arch-nemesis, the Joker!
Cotter soon learns that a chain of suicides is this thing’s doing, which each victim passing on the curse to whomever witnesses their deaths. With virtually nobody believing she has been hexed, it is up to her to break the demonic hold and save her own life.
Despite largely positive reviews across the board and having topped the North American box office two weekends in a row, “Smile” is your standard horror flick.
The film is carried by Bacon, whose plight is accentuated by her committed performance across its two-hour runtime. The mental breakdown she experiences is harrowing at points, as she turns from a caring doctor to a sobbing wreck.
For his first effort, director Finn also does a good job with the camera, pushing it so close to his actors’ faces that the audience can observe even the slightest movements.
It’s rather unsettling, which is likely the point: the characters practically stare into your soul, liable at any point to break into that maniacal Cheshire grin.
There are moments when the camera effectively focuses on darkened doorways and windows looking out on a pitch-black forest. You can’t help but feel paranoid that something is out there.
However, “Smile” has its fair share of problems, starting with how almost no one gives Cotter the benefit of the doubt and hears her out – not even her fiancé Trevor (Jessie T Usher), her therapist (Robin Weigert), or her boss (Kal Penn) at the hospital she works in.
Midway through, you start to figure out where it’s all going, while the characters are still running around like headless chickens.
Annoyingly, many of the jump scares come from fake-outs, with Cotter experiencing something terrifying only for it to be a hallucination.
Moreover, the whole thing about smiles being scary is only used in the first half of the film before being largely neglected in the second – a strange choice, given the movie’s title.
And then there’s the ending, which – without giving too much away – might leave viewers with a sour taste in their mouths.
It’s evident the entity is supposed to be a metaphor for trauma and how it sticks to you and can ruin your life if unaddressed. The theme of suicide is played out with little subtlety, driven home with the revelation of Cotter’s guilt over having witnessed her own mother’s death.
To overcome the demon, it appears she has to face her fears and accept that her trauma does not define or control her. She does so and, for a time, it looks like she’s on the road to recovery – only to have the carpet pulled out from under the audience’s feet again.
It’s all quite depressing for anyone who may be grappling with real-world trauma and is looking to be inspired. But perhaps inspiration isn’t the point here; maybe it’s that trauma isn’t so easily vanquished, even when you think you have won.
All in all, “Smile” is fine if you’re looking for a popcorn flick, but not so much if you’ve seen it all and want more out of your time at the theatre. It’s likely you will go in with a grin and leave with a groan.
‘Smile’ is screening cinemas nationwide.