Welcome to Knockout Horror. We are catching up on more horror movies I have missed today as we’ll be looking at 2022 horror hit Smile. There’s a bit of a backstory as to why I never got around to checking this film out but I will get into that in a little.
First I have to point out just how popular this movie was. It took $217 million at the box office on just a $17 million budget and people had a lot of good stuff to say about it. The sequel is releasing within the next few months (check out our review of the Smile 2 trailer after the bounce or, posting from the future, check out our review of Smile 2 itself.) and I doubt that will be the last we hear from the franchise.
Directed by Parker Finn in his feature length debut and following up from his short movie Laura Hasn’t Slept. Smile follows the story of therapist Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon). After witnessing the bizarre suicide of a patient at her mental health facility. Rose begins to experience changes in her life that seem an awful lot like the ones related to her by that said patient. Is it all in her head or is she headed for a similar fate?
Guess I Was Mistaken
I had absolutely no interest in watching this movie back when it released. I remember catching the trailer in the cinema and thinking that it looked like one of the cheesiest horror movies I had witnessed in while. The stupid focus on characters smiling, the over the top jump scares, the general tropeyness. This was a horror movie that, in my opinion, had absolutely nothing to offer me and I wasn’t about to give it the time of day.
It was only when the movie started getting popular that people actually started to talk about it. From everything I was reading, my opinion had been, perhaps, a little bit rash. Sure, it was obviously a very tropey horror movie and the jump scares were going to play front and centre. But maybe it wasn’t quite as bad as it had initially seemed. Maybe there was some story buried in here, maybe there was something to grasp onto. Still, it took me another two years to actually bother checking it out. With the sequel coming up, I figured that I probably couldn’t hide from it much longer so here we are.
Not All That Bad
Smile really isn’t all that bad of a horror movie. Sure, it’s not fantastic and it isn’t exactly laying any new ground for future horror to come. But it does enough right to be an enjoyable couple of hours of viewing. This slides right into that category that movies like Sinister and The Conjuring fit into. Hollywood horror that doesn’t demand too much and makes for a perfectly entertaining option for both fans and non-fans of the genre.
Scares are fairly effective, the story is interesting enough and Sosie Bacon’s performance is strong enough to help keep the movie flowing when things starts to slip a little. This is fairly classic 2010’s, and beyond, Hollywood horror. We open up with some minor exposition into our protagonist. We see something awful happen and the rest of the movie consists of things becoming increasingly worse and Rose trying to find a way out of her predicament. It’s very basic stuff.
Despite this, it simply works. Pacing is decent enough, for the most part. Direction is competent and cinematography is very commendable. Scares are well spaced out and there is a decent sense of tension throughout. I really liked Rose’s transition from person in power with no belief in the supernatural. To a person wrestling with the very real possibility that what she is experiencing is not simply a mental collapse and is, actually, something much more real. Some of the more horror focused scenes are legitimately effective, as well. And sure to get a jump out of casual fans and younger viewers.
Metaphorical Horror
A very light touch allegory for mental illness takes centre stage here. The whole movie is a metaphor for the realities of living with psychosis based health disorders, and the like. As well as the manner in which trauma is passed on. Smile plays on the subject of both people in places of power and friends and family not believing in you. And the cycle of decline that comes from attempting to function in society with such conditions. It makes for a pretty effective backbone for a horror story.
As a sufferer of bipolar disorder, I can attest to the story being fairly accurate to real life experiences, if not a little ham fisted. Rose constantly being greeted with denial, refusal to believe, and downright aggression by the people around her feels all too familiar, as I am sure it will for anyone in similar situations. It’s a compelling enough story though it would be remiss of me to not mention how long it is. This movie needs at least twenty minutes shaving off the runtime. It starts to repeat itself very early on and doesn’t stop until the end.
Not Perfect
Despite the positives, there are a bunch of issues here. I noticed a few problems with editing making for some bad scene switches. Dialogue is, at times, pretty awful. The movie frequently reaches deep into the bag of horror cliches and pulls almost all of them out at least once. Smile begins repeating itself early and carries on throughout. The sound production is a nightmare with Smile demanding that you pump the volume to hear the characters talk only to be blasted with copious amounts of noise on jump scares. It’s frustrating and, dare I say it, just a little bit cheap.
Not all of the acting performances are great. Sosie Bacon is absolutely fantastic and makes this movie infinitely better than it is. I can’t say the same about Kyle Gallner whose good guy cop Joel is beyond cliched and very weakly performed throughout. It was cool seeing Kal Penn in a small role but, at the end of the day, the cast doesn’t blow you away. As mentioned earlier, the movie is way too long and I imagine some will dislike the ending. It has to be pointed out that Smile is massively overhyped, as well. Some people build this movie up to be something it simply is not and that will leave many feeling like it is hugely overrated. Go in with your expectations set.
Should You Watch Smile?
If you are looking for a fun, mindless, Hollywood horror then I think you should watch Smile. It’s fairly interesting, the scares are decent, it doesn’t demand too much of you and Sosie Bacon is fantastic. It isn’t likely to blow serious horror fans away. It is mega cliched, too long, doesn’t do anything new and is rather overhyped. But it is still a great option for anyone looking for light horror thrills. A great option for a sleepover or just something to enjoy on a Saturday night. Better than I thought it was going to be, for sure.
