Nerdly » ‘Smile’ Blu-ray Review

20th Dec2022

‘Smile’ Blu-ray Review

by Matthew Turner

Stars: Sosie Bacon, Jessie T. Usher, Kyle Gallner, Robert Weigert, Caitlin Stasey, Kal Penn, Rob Morgan, Gillian Zinser | Written and Directed by Parker Finn

Sosie Bacon (daughter of Kevin) plays a therapist who believes she’s being haunted by a sinister curse in this chilling horror from debut writer-director Parker Finn. The plot may be overly familiar, but Smile scores highly when it comes to scares and atmosphere and is likely to become a word-of-mouth hit.

Bacon plays Dr Rose Cotter, an emergency psych ward therapist who has successfully compartmentalised her own trauma with regard to a family tragedy. One day, a terrified young woman (Kindred Spirits’ Caitlin Stasey) appears in her office, relating a story about how she saw a man commit suicide right in front of her, and ever since then she’s been pursued by a sinister entity who smiles at her from the bodies of other people.

Rose’s attempts to reassure her patient are cut horrifically short when she smiles a creepy smile and commits suicide in a grisly fashion. Soon afterwards, Rose becomes increasingly freaked out when she starts seeing the same smiling figures. But is she cracking up – as her boyfriend (Jessie T Usher), sister and boss (Kal Penn) all seem to believe – or is something more sinister going on?

The plot is undeniably derivative, drawing heavily on both It Follows and The Ring, among others. However, Finn knows exactly what he’s doing, and the film arguably uses the audience’s familiarity with those movies to push the horror moments that much further.

In particular, Finn shows particular skill with jump scares – there are a good half a dozen of them deployed throughout Smile and they all achieve the desired effect. Also, you have to respect any director who can get a jump scare from someone opening a can of cat food, with an assist from the film’s excellent sound design work.

On a similar note, Finn proves a dab hand at creating a deeply creepy and impressively tense atmosphere, with the soundtrack making great use of silence, in conjunction with an excellent score by Cristobal Tapia de Veer. The film also taps into the disturbing nature of the creepy smile itself, highlighting both the intimacy of the moment and the disconcerting contrast between the smile’s supposed implication (happiness, friendship) and its capacity to unsettle when used by someone with sinister intentions.

Sosie Bacon is superb as Rose, investing the character with engaging vulnerability and convincingly portraying each stage of her gradual breakdown. There’s also strong support from Kyle Gallner as the cop ex-boyfriend she turns to for help and Robin Weigert is effective as Rose’s sympathetic therapist, though the rest of the supporting cast (Usher and Zinser in particular) are frustratingly underwritten by contrast.

In terms of set pieces, Finn delivers a couple of instant classics (warning: don’t get too attached to that cute cat), as well as saving some truly grisly surprises for the finale, where a hitherto rather restrained special effects team really comes into its own, leaving the audience with some genuinely horrific images.

In short, this is a finely crafted, genuinely scary multiplex horror that delivers plenty of shocks and jumps, as well as grappling with trauma in a way that feels sincerely thought out, rather than used for screenwriting shortcuts. It goes without saying that it also has significant franchise potential, and it’s easy to imagine teenagers (and childish adults) attending repeat viewings and freaking each other out with creepy smiles afterwards.

Blu-ray Special Features:

LAURA HASN’T SLEPT: The terrifying original short film that started it all, with an introduction by director Parker Finn
Commentary By Director Parker Finn
Something’s Wrong With Rose: Making Smile
Flies On The Wall: Inside The Score
Deleted Scenes With Optional Commentary By Director Parker Finn