Horror movies have explored the effects of trauma since the genre was born. In fact, trauma is a major theme in the 1968 Roman Polanski-directed classic horror film Rosemaryโs Baby. This film examines the trauma that can accompany childbirth and the protective instinct that a mother feels toward their child. Similarly, a major theme in the 2018 horror film Hereditary is the trauma that the main character experiences after the tragic loss of her daughter and how that trauma separates her entire family. However, in these previous two examples, the effect of trauma is more nuanced and subtle. In the 2022 horror film Smile, on the other hand, the protagonist must deal with a parasitic demon that is literally transmitted from host to host through trauma.ย
The film starts off with a scene of a woman in the midst of committing suicide by overdose and her daughter walking in to find her in a drug-induced half-conscious state. The next scene shows the same little girl all grown up, thus introducing this character as someone who has experienced great trauma in their life. As the film goes on, it becomes clearer and clearer that the amorphous monster tormenting the main character feeds on this trauma and needs it to jump from host to host.
Overall, this movie deserves to be counted as one of the best horror films of 2022. This was Parker Finnโs feature directorial debut and probably the biggest film that Sosie Bacon (daughter of Kevin Bacon) has ever starred in. And, the two of them showed real acumen in this exceptionally terrifying and well-made movie.ย
Smile Synopsis
If you havenโt seen this movie yet, you may want to skip this section of the article as it contains several spoilers.
Sosie Bacon stars in this film as Dr. Rose Cotter, a therapist at a psychiatric ward. The first major event of the film occurs when Rose is called into an examination room to meet with Laura, a student who appears to be having a breakdown after witnessing her professor commit suicide. During the examination, Laura breaks a ceramic pot and uses a shard of the pot to slice her own neck from ear to ear (creating a gash in the shape of a smile).
After witnessing the death of her patient, Rose begins developing symptoms similar to those that Laura had described before she killed herself. She begins seeing visions of Laura standing in dark corners of her home, she hears her name called out to her in the middle of the night, and she sees people smiling at her in a very creepy way. In one episode, she even accidentally gives her dead cat to her nephew for his birthday.
All in all, Roseโs whole life is spiraling out of control and everyone around her seems to think sheโs going crazy (including her boss, her sister, and even her fiance). However, after some research, Rose discovers that there has been a chain of strange suicides before Lauraโs. Eventually, she reasons that whatever demon is tormenting her jumps from victim to victim when the old victim commits suicide in front of the new victim.
With no one left to turn to, Rose turns to her ex-boyfriend (a police officer named Joel) for help. The two of them discover that a man named Robert Talley is the only one to have been haunted by the monster and live. He claims that the only way to survive the curse is to murder someone else in a gruesome manner with a witness present, thus putting the witness through trauma and creating an acceptable new host.
After considering murdering one of her patients in order to pass on the curse to someone else, Rose ultimately determines that sheโs not willing to commit murder to save herself. Instead, she drives out the now-abandoned house where she lived as a child and locks herself in, planning to confront the monster alone.
Within the house, Rose sees the demon in the form of her mother and the two of them have a discussion about how Rose could have saved her mother from dying but didnโt. Eventually, once Rose proclaims that sheโs freed herself from guilt, the monster grows into a super-tall and deformed version of her mother and then turns into a skinless, fleshy humanoid creature with multiple jaws. Rose tries to kill the monster by lighting it on fire but, since the monster is entirely in her mind anyway, sheโs unable to rid herself of its curse.
Finally, when Joel arrives at the house, having tracked Rose down, he enters to find the fleshy beast climbing into Roseโs body. Finally, Joel witnesses Rose douse herself in kerosene and then light herself on fire, all while smiling. Of course, the implication here is that Joel will be the new host for the parasitic demon and it will continue to wreak havoc on this specific part of New Jersey.
Smile Analysis
All in all, Smile was a supremely scary film. Very few films made in recent years are as genuinely terrifying as this one. For one, this film makes great use of jump-scares. For instance, thereโs one scene where Rose is listening to an audio recording of her session with Laura (the patient who slit her own throat) and the monster comes out of nowhere and shouts Roseโs name in her ear. The looming silence of this scene interrupted by the loud and swift movement of the demon made me nearly fall out of my seat.
However, if youโre worried that this film is just a series of cheap jump-scares, donโt worry. There is also a very terrifying psychological element to this movie that stems from an inability for Rose to trust anyone, including herself. This demon is inside of her mind, making her do things that she doesnโt remember doing and hear and see things that arenโt there. The idea of your own mind not being trustworthy is a horrifying thing to consider, which is part of what makes this movie so scary.
On top of that, Rose (as well as the viewers) canโt trust anyone. Since the monster is capable of possessing anyone, any character in the movie could turn into a demon at any point. This keeps the audience in a state of constant tension and distrust, keeping them on the edge of their seats for the entire 115-minute duration of the movie.
If thereโs one thing that I would criticize about this film, itโs the large, fleshy monster shown at the end. Throughout the entire film, the fact that the monster never took its own unique form but rather took over the bodies of others was one of the reasons that it was so scary. The monster could be anyone at any time, even the person you trust the most. So, having the monster take the form of a tall, fleshy beast with several jaws felt like a betrayal of the established order.
Yes, the CGI designers who made the fleshy humanoid monster did an excellent job creating a creature that was terrifying. But, something about this creature making an appearance in the movie felt out-of-place and cheesy. This was a psychological horror, not a monster movie. Personally, I donโt think that the monster should have made its cameo.ย
But, as a whole, I thought that Smile was both terrifying and thought-provoking, which are usually what you want out of a horror movie. So, if youโre looking for a movie thatโs going to scare the wits out of you, then Smile is a good bet.ย
Haunting grapefruit smiles! After watching this movie, do you feel that those scary things really exist around each of us?