After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, a psychiatrist becomes increasingly convinced she is being threatened by an uncanny entity.
- brycowardOctober 29, 2024A little bit "The Ring" and a little bit "It Follows". A fantastic exploration of grief, of not addressing pain, and the consuming nature of trauma. The character, particularly the protagonist and her partner, and story-telling with respect to the post curse behavior are wanting. The main character, a therapist, fails to couch any of her behavior in a way to explain it to her collogues; she fails to attempt to explain it with anything which would be explainable to others. She fails to ask to be restrained. She fails to reason that the prior victim committed a violent suicide in front of others, and therefore she needed to prevent that outcome. Similarly, her partner immediately becomes an unhelpful jerk, suspicious of his extremely reasonable, professional mental health expert partner. Those behaviors could very easily have been changed to be more in character, and the story would largely have been fine.
- MrTrivetJanuary 26, 2026Having watched plenty of horror films, it’s easy to grow immune to jump scares, but Smile genuinely caught me off guard more than once, making my heart skip a beat even when I knew what was coming. Tension and unease are relentless, only briefly broken by moments of narrative exposition. The film evokes The Ring, yet the director skillfully manipulates suspense, forcing viewers to question what is real and what is imagined. Central to the story is trauma and the heavy burden it carries, affecting not just the protagonist but those around them. While Smile leans on familiar horror clichés, it masterfully builds a chilling, unsettling world. By the end, it leaves you shaken - and certainly not smiling.
- jackmeatSeptember 4, 2025My quick rating - 6.6/10. Damn, that creepy ass smile. If there’s one thing Parker Finn’s Smile accomplishes, it’s making grins feel about as welcoming as a rusty bear trap. The movie kicks off with psychiatrist Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) witnessing a patient’s traumatic suicide, and from there, her life nosedives into a cycle of paranoia, hallucinations, and that dreadful grin that follows her like an unwanted subscription you forgot to cancel. What really works here is how relentless the entity is in tormenting Rose. It’s not just the jump scares—it’s the psychological warfare. That birthday party scene? Oh yeah, that one will stick with you. If I were in her shoes, I don’t think my first instinct would be to keep insisting, “I’m fine.” This isn’t the “walk it off” kind of situation. This is more the “call a priest, a therapist, and maybe buy a flamethrower” variety of problem. Beneath the horror, Parker Finn uses the story as a metaphor for trauma, showing how it infects every aspect of someone’s life and can easily be passed on. The idea isn’t subtle, but it’s effective, and Bacon carries it beautifully. She nails the role of someone unraveling in slow motion, making you believe every crack in her composure. For a mid-budget flick, the technical side is surprisingly sharp. Charlie Sarroff’s cinematography is slick and unsettling, with camera angles that feel like the floor itself is judging you. The sound design is also spot-on with unnerving tones and just enough distortion to make you wish you’d watched it with the lights on. Now, gore hounds shouldn’t expect a buffet, but what’s there works. The kills look solid, but this is a movie where the psychological scares and those brutally timed jump scares do the heavy lifting. And credit where it’s due, the jump scares aren’t the cheap kind that make you hate yourself for falling for them. These are the “dammit, they got me” type that earn their keep. If there’s a knock against Smile, it’s the ending, which feels a little anticlimactic compared to the rollercoaster leading up to it. It doesn’t ruin the experience, but it does leave you wishing the finale had grinned a little wider. Still, between Finn’s confident debut, Sosie Bacon’s gripping performance, and a few scares that will haunt your dreams, Smile gets under your skin in all the right ways.
- Daniel SchmidNovember 12, 2025The acting was good but the story was just not interesting at all. When you already see the next "this isn't what's really happening" coming, there's just not much left to enjoy. The ending is anything but satisfying, it's just not even an actual ending other than the movie suddenly being over. No closure, no resolution, not even an interesting open end. This is gonna be a hard skip from me.
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Smile was released on September 28, 2022.
Smile was directed by Parker Finn.
Smile has a runtime of 1h 55m.
Smile was produced by Isaac Klausner, Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey, Robert Salerno.
After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, a psychiatrist becomes increasingly convinced she is being threatened by an uncanny entity.
The key characters in Smile are Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon), Joel (Kyle Gallner), Trevor (Jessie T. Usher).
Smile is rated R.
Smile is a Horror, Mystery, Thriller film.
Smile has an audience rating of 7.7 out of 10.
Smile had a budget of $17M.
Smile has made $217.4M at the box office.