Smile: A Disappointing Watch

“Smile” may be disturbing to the eye, but is filled with unoriginal horror, and needs more emotion and character development. There are some positives of Smile, but overall needs work The movie begins with Dr. Rose Cotter, an emergency room psychiatrist who’s been working 80-hour weeks. Rose was getting ready to leave for the day, but suddenly got a last-minute call about a patient who had just arrived displaying unstable behavior. 

Dr. Rose and the patient, Laura, sat down together and Laura began to tell her about an entity that’s been tormenting her. She goes on to say the entity has been revealing itself in other people, and that they all seem to be smiling in a sickening way. This is a very simple and cliche way to start off a horror movie and could be improved with more suspense, better dialogue, and more developed characters.

Laura then tells Rose that the entity has told her she will die today, and a couple moments later Laura proceeds to brutally kill herself with a glass piece from a broken flower vase. She does this while smiling in a horrifying way. This would unsettle anyone, but it especially bothers Rose, given her own mother died by suicide. Here the movie should dive more into Rose’s past to develop her mother’s character more.

What Rose doesn’t know is that Laura’s presence transferred the entity to Rose. The creature is now connected to her and makes itself known in jump scares, creepy phone calls, and Rose’s cat’s death. Rose recruits the help of her ex-boyfriend, a police officer, to try and help her break the curse.

The plot centers around the concept of trauma. The movie itself is very unoriginal and nothing really stands out when watching it. The ending was very predictable and poor. The company who made the movie wanted to make sure that the movie would have a sequel, which led to an unsatisfying ending. If you are a horror movie fanatic, then this movie will disappoint you.

 It had some good jump scares. I screamed at some parts, and could feel myself at edge most of the time. This gave it a creepy energy, which is good since it’s a horror movie. The main character Rose had very good acting, expressions, and drama. This made the movie enjoyable despite it not being the greatest.

This movie is a reminder that, if we are to be accepted in the wider world, we are expected to plaster a smile over our psychological wounds, to pretend we’re fine. It did however have its oppressiveness and grimness. The horror elements are bloody and disturbing, which suits the dark themes of the movie well. However, putting all these things aside, the movie is nothing special.