Review of Smile (2021) by Soulwarfare — 01 Jan 2023

Smile is a horror film directed by Parker Finn in his feature directorial debut. For someone's directorial debut, this is very impressive.

There are deeply unsettling visuals and proper tension. The movie is reliant on jump scare and it can get tedious. However, there is a fair amount of jump scare with good build-up and payoff which did scare me. I also love the sound design in this film. The director uses it effectively to create a creepy feeling. The first 2 acts of the film are well done. We see our main character Rose (Sosie Bacon) slowly descend into madness as the 'curse' becomes more prominent. On that note, Sosie Bacon is phenomenal as the main lead. She gives a convincing performance of someone who is losing their mind.

Nevertheless, this film falls into a lot of the generic tropes of a horror movie. Its plot isn't original, you've seen it in films like It Follows and The Ring. It has a lot of the same beat-for-beat elements you've seen a dozen times. Even the ending is something you have seen in other horror movies. The main character also says and does incredibly stupid things. There are also moments in this film that are unintentionally funny and silly but are meant to be serious moments. Overall, it is a well-made horror film, especially for a director's first film. Still, it never really goes beyond a generic horror movie. If you want something different in the horror genre then this is not it.