I felt like an old, curmudgeon of a man tonight. I went to the movie theater to watch Smile and I was surprised to find an almost packed theater. I was surprised that it was on the same weekend Black Adam released, the fact that Smile has been out for almost three weeks, and that it was a 10:10 p.m. showing. 

I sat in the top corner seat and watched the theater fill up with the younger generation and I knew that I was going to be annoyed. And I was. They talked, looked at their smart phones, and moved around as a group way too many times. So, when they all jumped and screamed at the jump scares, I laughed with glee.  

And the jump scares were plentiful in this film, but most of them were tastefully placed. I enjoyed most of them. 

Smile is written and directed by Parker Finn. This is Finn’s first theatrical film, but it doesn’t seem like it. He did an excellent job at crafting a decent entry into the horror genre.  

After witnessing a traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter (played by Sosie Bacon) starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can’t explain. Rose has to confront her troubling past in order to survive and escape her horrifying new reality.  

This is Sosie Bacon’s film by the way. There are maybe one or two scenes where she’s not in the film and that’s in flashbacks where her character was a child. The supporting cast isn’t bad, but her fiancé Trevor (played by Jessie T. Usher) just doesn’t have much to do in the film. There’s a third character that is Rose’s old flame, a cop called Joel (played by Kyle Gallner). My one thought would be to combine both of those characters because you don’t see Trevor at all in the third act.  

The other complaint I have, and it’s a minor one, is that there’s a CGI beastie in this film and it’s pretty cheesy in appearance.  

Other than that, I enjoyed the film. I thought that the script was pretty clean, and it didn’t meander from the overall plot.  As I said above, Bacon really ruled this film. I liked the tension that was built throughout the film. There were a couple surprising twists that I didn’t see coming. Plus, there’s something creepy about seeing people smiling at you when it’s not the appropriate time. 

31 Days of Horror Rankings: 

1. Deadstream (2022) 
2. Willy’s Wonderland (2021)  
3. Grimcutty (2022)
4. Smile (2022)
5. Watcher (2022)   
6. The Spine of Night (2021)
7. Mad God (2022)
8. She Will (2022)
9. Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
10. Escape Room (2019)
11. We Have Always Lived in the Castle (2018)
12. The Cellar (2022)  
13. The Last Rite (2021)
14. Revealer (2022)  
15. Sissy (2022) 
16. Halloween Ends (2022)
17. Mr. Harrigan’s Phone (2022)
18. Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1982)
19. The Collingswood Story (2002)
20. Werewolf by Night (2022)
21. Firestarter (2022)