SMILE
As you should all know, the horror genre is where my beating heart lies, and yet “Smile” was never on my radar as something I needed to rush out and see. The way the film came into my life was thanks to my twelve year old daughter (also a horror hound like her dad) who told me that the film looked cool and she wanted to see it. She showed me the trailer for it, but honestly I wasn't that impressed, and thought it looked like one of those ho-hum, by-the-numbers Blumhouse productions like “Truth or Dare” or “Fantasy Island”. I think I told my daughter it looked okay though, and she was happy with that and moved on.
Some months past and its release drew near, and “Smile” ended up being rated MA15+ which,for those of you who do not live in Australia, is a restricted rating meaning people under the age of 15 cannot see the film without a parent or guardian present. This meant my twelve year old daughter would not be able to see the film without me taking her, and I wasn't really thrilled about going to see “Smile” on the big screen so I never brought it up around her. That changed when my other daughter, who recently turned fifteen, came home after seeing the film with her friends saying it was the scariest film she had ever seen, that she was crying. Miette is not above a little hyperbole from time to time, so I took her “review” with a grain of salt, particularly since she is not a fan of horror films and is easily scared by the smallest things. However her reaction did intensify daughter number two's desire to see “Smile”, and as is no doubt obvious by now, I relented and took her to see it...............and absolutely loved it!
Just from the sheer number of horror films I have watched in my life, I no longer get scared by them and never jump throughout them (much to the chagrin of my daughter, Peyton), but I can always tell when a horror film is working and just how effective it is. “Smile” is a very impressive horror film that had a hardness and intensity to it that I was not expecting. After the very impressive opening scene, which sees a patient kill herself mid-panic attack during a session with her shrink, I immediately understood why my other daughter found the film so frightening; it was an intense experience. I could also feel that tension in the daughter sitting next to me in the cinema too, including one moment towards the end when it got too much for her and she just said “Nup!” and closed her eyes. Director Parker Finn has created a smart horror film, that tackles a number of serious subjects like mental illness, and the effect past traumas can have on a person, while not forgetting how to build the suspense of his film and architect its scares. “Smile” has the best jump scare I have seen for ages in a horror film, but the moment isn't of the cheap variety, it has been well and truly earned, which is why it is so successful. It gives a release to the audience who feel they have been holding their breath for so long, although the timing of the scare is unusual which makes it so surprising.
“Smile” is an extremely well acted film, with a brilliant lead performance from Sosie Bacon (yes, daughter of Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick) who makes her mental breakdown, and fear of schizophrenia, so believable, and because of this, also makes the film so sad at times. As I mentioned before, the film deals heavily in trauma, and Bacon does a fantastic job at portraying the weight of the trauma from her past that she is haunted by. From the way she is portrayed at the beginning to the complete disintegration of her character by the end, this is a beautiful but tragic performance rarely seen in horror films. I also want to give a shout out to Australian actress Caitlin Stasey who plays the patient, Laura, in the opening scene, and sets the tone for the rest of the film to come; she is outstanding!
Initially, I had some misgivings in regards to the similarities between “Smile” and “It Follows”, as they both involve entities that come after you in the guise of someone different each time, but by the end of “Smile” it had travelled its own course that it never felt like a total rip off. That said, I still thought I should mention the similarity because it does exist. One aspect that I loved about “Smile” is that director Parker Finn tried to shoot everything in camera when he could, using very little CGI in the film. He has gone on record stating that all the demented smiles in the film are real, and were not augmented in post which I appreciated because the whole CGI mouth thing has been done to death lately. Gore effects are predominately done practically too, only using CGI to hide the magicians tricks, and I was very surprised by the fact that one very strange moment at the film's finale was done via puppetry and a man in a suit; good stuff.
Before I finish up, I have to say that “Smile” wasn't just a surprise for me, but also the distributors themselves. The film was originally made for Paramount's streaming channel, but after a test screening produced a hugely positive result, it was decided to give “Smile” a theatrical release instead, where it has done huge numbers around the world, making it one of the biggest success stories of the year.
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