Smile is a genuinely scary and engaging psychological horror movie. It centres around a hard-working therapist in an emergency psychiatric unit, named Dr Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon).
As Dr Cotter is about to leave the facility after a particularly long shift, a young graduate student Laura Weaver (Caitlin Stasey) enters shaking and clearly traumatised. In the past few days Weaver witnessed one of her professors bludgeon himself to death. Since then she’s been seeing things – notably a malevolent entity that wears different faces like masks. At times it pretends to be someone she knows. Whenever she sees it, it is smiling at her, but not a friendly smile, rather one suggesting something terrible is about to happen.
Despite Dr Cotter’s reassurances that nothing bad is happening, Weaver is convinced she’s about to die. And die she does – in front of the psychiatrist. Dr Cotter then begins to have terrifying visions. Increasingly, her behaviour is becoming more and more erratic. That is cause for concern for her live in fiancé Trevor (Jessie T. Usher), her older sister Holly (Gillian Zinser) and sympathetic boss Dr Morgan Desai (Kal Penn). In desperation, Dr Cotter turns to her former police officer boyfriend Joel (Kyle Gallner) for help. As the plot unfolds, we also get to hear about Dr Cotter’s troubled past.
Smile is an auspicious feature film debut for writer and director Parker Finn. It was inspired by a short film titled Laura Hasn’t Slept featuring Caitlin Stasey that he made in 2020. With Smile, he’s created a captivating work of terrifying fiction. It’s decidedly creepy. An increasing sense of desperation and a feeling of hopelessness permeates the screenplay. There’s no let-up in the action. I felt the impact of the ordeal on Dr Cotter.
Smile benefits from a strong starring role by Sosie Bacon, who channels vulnerability and fear with distinction. She does most of the heavy lifting in the film. The cinematography by Charlie Sarroff and lighting aid the cause. The use of light and shade is impressive. So, too, is the menacing soundscape, with music by Cristobal Tapia de Veer.
Smile is the complete package in a genre where many movies pull up short.
Alex First
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Alex First is a Melbourne based journalist and communications specialist. He contributes to The Blurb on film and theatre.