Smile

A good horror movie must always pose a physical and moral experience. Beyond the plot, the important thing is that the viewer does not stop asking the same questions over and over again. Is something terrible about to happen? What is wrong? Why is this character doomed?

Director Parker Finn gets it in Smile. From its first sequence, the suspense does not stop growing. The startle mechanic (pause-disturb-scare) is very well done. And the suspension of disbelief also works perfectly, in such a way that we not only identify with the protagonist (the magnificent Sosie Bacon, in the shoes of a clinical psychologist), but also accept the succession of misfortunes that her dark adventure entails.

Smile's narrative template isn't completely original, but it gives us the impression that it is. The main character, Dr. Rose Cotter (Bacon), is the victim of a supernatural nightmare whose common denominator is always the same: a terrifying smile as a foretaste of disturbing visions and gruesome deaths.

The veteran viewer will discover that this film belongs to the same thematic line as It Follows (2014), by David Robert Mitchell, and The Ring (The circle) (1998), by Hideo Nakata. However, this is not your typical recycling exercise. Sosie Bacon's impeccable performance and Finn's solid behind-the-scenes work make Smile a genuinely shocking terror.

On the other hand, the film deals with very real issues: uncontrolled emotions, social isolation, induced anxiety, and mental illness. What appears to be a ghostly curse could also be a sick delusion or an aimless escape. Precisely for this reason, there are sections of the tape that plunge us into the psyche of Rose Cotter with such intensity that it is difficult not to identify with her anxiety and her growing paranoia.

Creepy and heartbreaking, Smile manages to seem fresh in a field as well-worn as supernatural horror. It would not be surprising if it ends up becoming a cult film.

Synopsis

After witnessing a strange and traumatic incident with a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) begins to experience terrifying events that she cannot explain. As an overwhelming terror takes over her life, Rose is forced to face her disturbing past in order to survive and escape her terrifying new reality.

Some scary movies are intended to give audiences subtle scares. Others try to get viewers to squirm in their seats. But filmmaker Parker Finn had a much bigger goal in mind when he set out to write and direct his first feature, Smile. “I wanted to make a movie that had a sustained panic attack feeling from start to finish,” he says.

The chilling story of a clinical psychiatrist who begins to experience horrifying and inexplicable events after a strange encounter with a patient, Smile is inspired by a short film Finn made in 2020. Titled Laura Hasn't Slept, the short starred Caitlin Stasey ‒who also has a memorable role in Smile‒ and won a Special Jury Award in the SXSW® Midnight Shorts category. The 11-minute film sparked enormous industry interest in Finn, which managed to pitch Paramount Pictures and Temple Hill Entertainment, owned by producers Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey, with a proposal to shoot a feature-length version.

Although thematically inspired by Laura Hasn't Slept, Smile takes the story in a thrilling new direction. Finn says he wanted to explore what it would be like to have your mind turn on you and make you feel scary experiences. “You know that feeling of dread you get when you wake up from a bad dream? That feeling of agonizing agony that persists despite being aware that it wasn't real? I wanted Smile to capture that feeling on screen."

A lifelong horror fan, Finn believes that one of the essential ingredients of the genre is characters that endear people to it. “The scariest movies are the ones that function first as dramatic stories, so my goal was to create a great main character because if you're interested in her, you'll be interested in her adventures,” he explains. "From that moment you can start to intersperse shocking moments that strike at the core of the public's fears and leave them at the feet of the horses, subverting their expectations in terrifying ways."

Smile centers on Dr. Rose Cotter, a committed psychiatrist at a public hospital, whose mission is to ensure that her troubled patients receive the help they need. But when an evil spirit enters Rose's life, the tables are turned and she has to convince her friends and family that the surreal nightmare she's living is real. As her ordeal to stay sane and survive becomes increasingly desperate, she is forced to investigate the baffling mystery and gather clues to find out what is happening to her.

To play Rose, Finn knew he needed an actress who could bring out both the dramatic and horror elements in the film. As soon as the production team met Sosie Bacon. Finn felt that Bacon's innate warmth and natural gift for connecting with people were essential traits in portraying an empathetic clinical psychiatrist. And just as important, he had the acting chops to capture the emotion and anxiety of someone caught in a dangerous downward spiral. “I think Sosie's is one of the most amazing debuts in a leading role in recent years,” says the director. "He's present in virtually every scene, operating with extreme levels of stress, fear, and panic for most of the movie." Maintaining that emotional tension can take its toll on an actor, but she is deeply committed to her craft and nailed her performance."

To bring the hair-raising scares of the film to life, Smile features a variety of practical and mechanical effects that will excite even the most seasoned genre aficionados. Rather than rely heavily on CGI, Finn preferred from the start to shoot as much as he could in front of the camera. “Visual effects are a wonderful tool, but I grew up watching movies with real effects, and it's one of the main reasons I wanted to become a filmmaker in the first place,” says the director. “There is something that cannot be explained when you have real, physical effects that the actors can interact with. There's a kind of magic that, in my experience, you can't get any other way."

The extra time and effort required to work with actual effects were well worth it, Bacon says. “I'm really glad it wasn't a CGI movie because it's a lot harder for me to react to the void when there's nothing in front of me. I'm much better at it when there's something physical in front of me that I can interact with. Plus, the way Parker crafted the jump scares using real effects, rather than green screens or motion capture suits, gives Smile a visceral feel."

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