Smile movie

A psychiatrist fleeing her own trauma discovers a grisly, self-replicating chain of destruction.

Apart from MR James, I found myself thinking of the Kafkaesque short story that Billy Wilder wrote while working as a journalist in Berlin in the 1920s called And then with a grisly self-destructive flourish, the awful smile itself breaks cover, and Rose realises that it is coming to get her too, and she faces a terrible choice if she wants to escape its curse. A deeply disturbed young woman is brought in, wretched with fear and lack of sleep, telling Rose about a hideously smiling demon that stalks her, inhabiting the bodies of various people: some are friends, some are random strangers.

Anchored by a great performance by Sosie Bacon, Parker Finn's feature debut is impressively unnerving—if you're up for it.

Smile is unable to resist the temptation of a potential sequel, but Finn delivers an effective resolution nonetheless. It helps set the mood that Rose, even when pursued by an evil presence, keeps her house lights set at extra dim and her phone ringer at extra loud. Consequently, nobody believes her when she starts seeing the smile herself, least of all her conservative supervisor Dr. The most effective scares involve variations on Hideo Nakata’s best one in Dark Water, where a character suddenly realizes there’s a scary thing right beside or behind them, and slowly, grudgingly turns to look at it, only to find it’s even worse than imagined. It may take time and repeated viewings to be sure just how good or bad Smile is as a movie, but as a scare delivery device, it is damned effective. At least until the climax escalates its stakes, Finn’s debut seems like it was pretty cost-effective, too, since the movie’s primary threat is a malevolent presence which mostly disguises itself as one of Stanley Kubrick’s most famous shots as a director.

Is the 2022 movie Smile streaming online? Find out where to watch Smile and when to expect Smile on Paramount+.

While The Lost City came to digital on the same day it was released on Paramount+, the release of Jackass Forever on Paramount+ was not accompanied by a VOD release. movie, and therefore will not be streaming on HBO Max when it opens in theaters. Last year, Paramount announced all of its titles would be moving to Paramount+ after 30 days in theaters, while big tentpole titles would get 45 days in theaters. Smile will open in theaters in the U.S on Friday, September 30. The movie may be on HBO Max someday, but it won’t be any time soon. Basically, after you watch this film, you’ll never want to smile for a photo again.

The trailer for Parker Finn's feature film debut Smile enticed the internet and drummed up intrigue for this high-concept horror when it was posted to ...

This film is not for the faint of heart. The original Japanese film that started the franchise, changed J-horror forever, and inspired countless American-Japanese horror remakes, Ringu, has many of the same elements as the American remake but is much more avant-garde and disjointed. The Ring - The other film horror fans have already compared Smile to is the iconic film The Ring. The Hidebehind won the Special Jury Award at the 2019 South by Southwest Film Festival and the Jury Award at the 2019 Portland Horror Film Festival. With the incredible cultural impact this film had, it would be unsurprising to learn filmmaker Parker Finn was inspired by the film's use of psychological stress by taunting the protagonist with their own death. Men - Released earlier in 2022, Men is the newest film by writer and director Alex Garland (Ex-Machina). Laura Hasn't Slept was the inspiration for Smile, and unfortunately, the film seems to have been removed from the internet. [Smile](https://collider.com/smile-review-sosie-bacon-parker-finn/) enticed the internet and drummed up intrigue for this high-concept horror when it was posted to YouTube in June of this year. With the release of Smile's trailer, the two films immediately drew comparisons for their use of supernatural forces that inhabit the bodies of others to stalk their victims. The film has already garnered comparison to popular horror films such as [It Follows](https://collider.com/it-follows-review/) and The Ring for its premise, involving an unseen terror threatening an untimely end. Actor [Kal Penn](https://collider.com/tag/kal-penn/), recognizable to comedy fans as the titular Kumar from Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle and its resulting sequels, plays Dr. Usher](https://collider.com/the-boys-season-4-jessie-usher-violence-comments/), best known for his role as The Flash parallel A-Train on the Amazon Prime series The Boys, has been cast in a supporting role, though he is not shown in the trailer.

'Smile' is too thin to run as long as it does, but it offers some fun scares and gross-out images amid a subtext-becomes-text riff on trauma-focused horror ...

It starts so close to the ground and escalates so quickly that it becomes monotonous as we wait for what is or isn’t in store. Sosie Bacon is as good as she needs to be, even if she is merely tasked with being anxious and on the verge of meltdown for the entire movie. Smile frankly offers little ‘new’ to the sub-genre, with too many of the film’s biggest jolts being fake-outs or ‘just a cat’-type cons. It’s mostly a waiting game to see if the good doctor can avoid her Ring/Drag Me to Hell-ish fate, while details about the circumstances offer up some over-the-top crime scene photos and just a little bit of detective work. However, it’s structured in such a way to make much of the present-tense menace null-and-void while relying far too often on dream sequences and fake-outs. Opening theatrically tomorrow night courtesy of Paramount, Parker Finn’s Smile often plays as a skewed subtext-made-text riff on the last few years of ‘It’s all about trauma!’ horror movies.

Director Parker Finn makes his feature film debut by writing and directing an adaptation of his own 2020 short film Laura Hasn't Slept.

It is also reminiscent of Hereditary and It Follows when it comes to the theme of psychological demons and how they can torment people in a domino effect. While it’s perhaps too clichéd to really impress or leave a lasting effect, Smile is still a satisfyingly sinister horror that ticks enough boxes to make it a box-office success. The decidedly creepy Smile has already received the approval of author Stephen King, who described it on Twitter as a “good, scary horror film”, adding that he was thoroughly impressed with Sosie Bacon’s performance in the leading role.

Then Paramount held a test screening, and Smile played to great results with fans literally shouting at the screen. The teens-budgeted film is looking at a high ...

Eichner has publicized Bros extensively and as the first LGBTQ studio comedy, and it is from a wide release perspective. 1 movie, Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling, is pacing slightly ahead in its first five days at the box office than Woman King did. The 1978 UA release French-language release La Cage Aux Folles broke through at the box office grossing over $20M, a hit back in its day. The last notable horror movie to open big was The R-rated film is hot with the 17-34 set as well as Latino-Hispanic and Black moviegoers. MGM would remake that movie into The Birdcage in 1996 with Robin Williams, Nathan Lane and Gene Hackman; that movie being an enormous hit at $124M domestic, $185.2M WW. Smile is up against Bros, the Nic Stoller-directed Billy Eichner starring and co-scripted romantic comedy from Universal. Paramount announced the release date in late May after late September freed up. Then Paramount held a test screening, and Smile played to great results with fans literally shouting at the screen. The teens-budgeted film is looking at a high-teens millions start this weekend, but rivals believe $20 million-plus could be a possibility from 3,600 locations. The pic, from writer-director Parker Finn, was developed by Paramount Players, and the studio took a wait-and-see approach as to where would land — on Paramount+ or theatrical. The pic recently played Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX.

SMILE is another horror movie about a demonic spirit haunting people. Dr. Rose Carter is a hospital psychiatrist. One day, a graduate student is admitted, ...

Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. That’s not surprising since at no point during the story does Rose turn to God or the Bible, much less to Jesus or a Christian pastor, to oppose and defeat the demon. Rose is traumatized by the event but tells her boss and the police that she’s okay. One day, a distraught graduate student named Laura is admitted, and Rose starts talking with Laura to discover what’s bothering her. That’s not surprising since Rose never turns to God or the Bible, much less to Jesus Christ or a Christian pastor, to defeat the demon. SMILE is another horror movie about a demonic spirit haunting people, and this time it’s a female psychiatrist working at a hospital who tries to treat a new patient, who gruesomely commits suicide right in front of her.

Paramount's R-rated horror film “Smile” is projected to top the box-office this weekend with a $16-20 million opening – very good for a cost-efficient $17 ...

It is also the first September since 2001 that has failed to produce a film with an opening weekend of over $20 million – that’s even with some success stories like “The Woman King” and “Barbarian”. Paramount’s R-rated horror film “Smile” is projected to top the box-office this weekend with a $16-20 million opening – very good for a cost-efficient $17 million horror tale. Both films are being buoyed by strong critical reviews with “Smile” at 84% and “Bros” at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, but the latter has reportedly already found itself subjected to homophobic review bombing.

Parker Finn's directorial debut, “Smile,” adapts his own 11-minute short into a jump scare-rich thriller about a hospital emergency ward therapist whose ...

“Smile,” a Paramount Pictures release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for strong violent content and grisly images, and language. But it still makes “Smile” a cynical and shallow piece of work unlikely to put a you-know-what on too many faces. That’s just one of many derivative elements to “Smile,” a horror movie that makes a few feeble gestures at sliding toward the so-called elevated variety of horror (like a couple upside-down shots that recall the vastly superior “Midsommar”).

September has been notoriously more off-kilter than normal with no movie opening north of $20 million – at least, so far.

Written and directed by Parker Finn – based on his 2020 short film “Laura Hasn’t Slept” – “Smile” is relying more on its premise (which has been compared to “The Ring”) than its starpower, with a cast made up of Sosie Bacon, Kyle Gallner, Caitlin Stasey (star of the short), Kal Penn, Jessie T. [Smile](https://www.goldderby.com/t/smile/),” which has had such eerie and scary trailers that it has literally made people jump out of their seats from some of the shocks… There’s no denying there are many horror fans out there who are looking for big scares in the weeks leading up to Halloween, even if they didn’t exactly rush out to see “Barbarian” or “Pearl” on their opening weekends. Sanberg extended his “Lights Out” short into a full feature for a $21.7 million opening and $67.2 million total. That would probably be considered quite a victory for Universal, although at this point, the interest in “Bros” seems to be fairly insular, which means it may instead top out at $15 million. Fortunately, there are many comparisons we can make of high-concept horror shorts extended to full features, including Andy Muschietti’s “Mama,” which opened with $28.4 million in 2013 and made $71.6 million domestic. (Jo Koy’s “Easter Sunday” – another Universal release – could have used that support in early August, since it failed to cross over to non-Filipino audiences.) Teaming with director Nicholas Stoller (“Neighbors,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”), Eichner has co-written the first gay romantic comedy to get a nationwide theatrical release. [Billy Eichner](https://www.goldderby.com/t/billy-eichner/) made a name for himself with his “Billy on the Street” videos, first on YouTube and then on cable, where he would go up to some unassuming people on the street and yell things at them. Read on for Gold Derby’s [box office](https://www.goldderby.com/t/box-office/) preview. In the movie, Eichner plays podcaster Bobby Leiber, who is cynical about love and relationships until he meets the rugged Aaron, played by Hallmark regular Luke Macfarlane. (Maybe it’s a little more clever than that.) Eichner has come a long way, and with his new movie “ [Bros](https://www.goldderby.com/t/bros/),” he adds screenwriter and leading man to his credits.

While it cribs from other films, Parker Finn's Smile is eerily effective at making you grimace.

Parker Finn’s debut is the real deal and pegs him as a genre filmmaker to watch. Those one or two less insulting instances that we mentioned earlier aside, Smile doesn’t indulge in the kind of dumb character actions that can quickly take one out of so many genre efforts. But it’s not long before Rose begins to experience the same kinds of visions and apparitions that Laura saw, while her mental well-being is questioned by her fiancé (Jessie T. That film begins with an intriguing first act and legitimately surprising switcheroo before degenerating into a series of astoundingly stupid character choices and unexplored themes. Rose Cotter, an emergency psychiatric therapist whose new patient, Laura (Caitlin Stasey, reprising her role from Finn’s original short), claims that she’s being stalked by a terrible presence that manifests itself as embodiments of other people—some she knows, some she doesn’t—that only she can see. So why not make a whole movie based around that stretching of the facial muscles, which can become a death’s-head rictus just as easily as an expression of happiness?

SMILE is a horror film out in theaters. We are in for a real horror treat with a fantastic sound design and amazing visuals. Movie Review >

The audio alone is more than reason enough to watch Smile in a movie theater. A bit like we saw in [The Black Phone](https://www.heavenofhorror.com/reviews/the-black-phone-2022-horror-movie/), but I think the running time is better used here. The entire cast delivers exactly what they need and in some cases a little more. In addition, there is Kal Penn (Clarice) as her concerned and well-meaning boss, and then Robin Weigert (American Horror Story, [Castle Rock](https://www.heavenofhorror.com/tv/first-trailer-stephen-king-tv-show-castle-rock/) season 2) as her therapist. [Mare of Easttown](https://www.heavenofhorror.com/reviews/mare-of-easttown-review-hbo-max-series/)) as the psychiatrist Rose Cotter. In other words, we are indeed dealing with a horror mystery. The last act in particular is a very extreme experience. In a good way. Just as I was about to leave, new (and rather strange) noises came from the screen [or rather, the surround sound], so most people in the theater stopped in their tracks. And we are in for a real horror treat with a fantastic sound design and visuals that just work perfectly. While I did not scream while watching the movie, I did jump in my seat several times. This creepy smile has also been used in marketing in the US, where people appear here, there, and everywhere with grim smiles.

A demonic presence manifests in survivors of trauma in this grim and unexpectedly poignant debut from Parker Finn.

[Scream](https://www.praguereporter.com/home/2022/1/12/scream-movie-review-2022-requel-a-fun-meta-throwback-to-wes-cravens-original)’s [Kyle Gallner](https://www.praguereporter.com/home/tag/Kyle+Gallner)), an ex from Rose’s past who unexpectedly shows up to investigate Laura’s suicide, we discover that this is some kind of suicide-cycle. [Sosie Bacon](https://www.praguereporter.com/home/tag/Sosie%20Bacon) (daughter of [Kevin Bacon](https://www.praguereporter.com/home/tag/Kevin%20Bacon)) as emergency room psychiatrist Dr. as well as something a little deeper that will haunt you long after the movie is over. But here’s where Smile is different: the “demon” here, in allegorical terms, is a parasite that infects those who witness traumatic events. Rose Cotter, tasked with talking down a disturbed patient Laura ( [Caitlin Stasey](https://www.praguereporter.com/home/tag/Caitlin%20Stasey)) in one of the film’s opening scenes. Unlike other paranormal horror movies, there’s no question whether the demons are “real” in the sense that they can be witnessed by or have an impact on other characters in the film.

Smile may seem like a strange concept for the horror movie but through great acting and camera works, these smiles will have you scared.

If you’re looking for a good new psychological horror movie with an interesting monster at the center, this could really bring a Smile to your face. A movie about a bunch of people smiling weirdly could have gone so wrong but director Parker Finn really knew how to make Smile incredibly uncanny through the use of good acting and unnerving camera shots. The majority of the movie is spent with the main character Rose who is the victim of the haunting. Like a lot of modern horror movies, the film also has a deeper allegorical message, this time about mental health and trauma. I can’t tell if CGI was used to make the smiles in Smile but the faces look like those that a person could actually make, yet you can tell there’s something off about them which adds to how unnerving they are. She starts off very professional looking in a suit and with her hair tied back, but by the end of the film she’s in far looser clothing, has really disheveled hair, and looks like she hasn’t slept in days. For one, we don’t actually see a lot of the smile entity. Some of them are quite well timed however quite a few of them do feel a little cheap and unearned. Smile has a lot of similarities to other horror movies about curses, most notably The Ring and It Follows. Smile isn’t the most original film in this regard but director Parker Finn has enough knowledge of horror to play with expectations. That is what the debut movie of Parker Finn: Smile manages to accomplish. Laura says she’s being followed by an entity that appears as different people with “the worst kind of smile”.

That's pretty much the movie right there, but Finn fleshes it out with some dizzying cinematography by Charlie Sarroff, a creepily effective score by Cristobal ...

However, Bacon’s performance as well as Finn’s detailed craft manage to hold tension, and the audience’s attention, for the nearly-two-hour runtime of this horror curio, which is as opaque and somewhat silly as the smiles that drive it. The death curse is like contagious PTSD: Anyone who witnesses the suicide of the person compelled to kill themselves by this “evil spirit” catches the curse and has to pass it on. When Finn delves into the childhood trauma that Rose has yet to make peace with, it is visualized and rendered so literally it’s laughable. But is “Smile” smiling with us as we chuckle at the on-the-nose dialogue, imagery and themes? It’s a technique that Finn liberally abuses in “Smile,” almost to comedic effect. Writer-director Parker Finn’s feature debut, “Smile,” boasts the thinnest of premises based on a laundry list of horror movie trends and tropes, from the historical to the contemporary. [COVID-19 pandemic](https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fcalifornia%2Fcoronavirus-everything-to-know-right-now&data=04%7C01%7Ckevin.crust%40latimes.com%7C52633c0a516544dd252a08d9e81168f0%7Ca42080b34dd948b4bf44d70d3bbaf5d2%7C0%7C0%7C637795983749169191%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=EARyZgH1vGMtlQdur%2F61n5fLiwKXExOWtv3guJOFSn8%3D&reserved=0). [Jamie Lee Curtis](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-full-circle-jamie-lee-curtis-20181018-story.html) has given in the past few years about the “Halloween” franchise). In the way that “Smile” takes on trauma as a source of horror so literally, one wonders if Finn is skewering the trend of ascribing all meaning in horror films to “it’s about trauma” (see: every interview original Final Girl [Robin Weigert](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-st-robin-weigart-deadwood-20190426-story.html), the preeminent portrayer of therapists (see: “Big Little Lies”), as Rose’s own therapist, who speaks to her in soothing, infuriating tones that eventually take on a menacing quality. [Val Lewton](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-jan-14-et-lewton14-story.html) pioneered a technique in the film “Cat People” that’s now referred to as the “Lewton Bus.” If you’ve ever seen a horror movie, you know it: a moment of slowly building tension that culminates in some shrieking noise from a source that is revealed to be harmless but sends the popcorn flying nevertheless — a ringing phone, a home alarm system, the brakes on a bus. Expanding on his 2020 short film “Laura Hasn’t Slept,” Finn inserts the latest hot topic in horror — trauma — into a story structured around a death curse chain, as seen in films like “The Ring,” “It Follows” and “She Dies Tomorrow.” All that’s needed to pass along the curse is a mere smile, but it’s the kind of chin-lowered, eyes-raised toothy grin that communicates something far more devious than friendly.

A young psychiatrist believes she's being pursued by a malevolent force in this impressive horror feature debut.

[“The Ring” (2002](https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/18/movies/film-review-don-t-touch-play-it-could-be-fatal.html)) and the cellphone in [“One Missed Call” (2005)](https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/22/arts/movies/film-in-review-one-missed-call.html). Like the emotional injury they represent, the smiles in “Smile” are — in one case, quite literally — bleeding wounds that can’t be stanched. In that film, the malevolent virus was transferred through sex; here, the medium is suicide, and the bloodier the better. In its thematic use of unprocessed trauma and, especially, its presentation of death as a kind of viral infection passed from one person to another, “Smile” embraces an immediately recognizable horror-movie setup. Her friends and family — including a distracted sister (Gillian Zinser), distant fiancé (Jessie T. And pain is something that Rose (Sosie Bacon), a young clinical psychiatrist, understands, having witnessed her mother’s suicide many years earlier.

Written and directed by freshman helmer Parker Finn, who is adapting his own short film, “Smile” follows Rose (Sosie Bacon), an impossibly kind mental-health ...

While I have no doubt that the admittedly shocking imagery in “Smile” will rattle some audience members, there are much better ways to get your spooky fix. One would think we’re beyond the era of suicidal thoughts and actions played for quick scares, but “Smile” has no such conviction. Written and directed by freshman helmer Parker Finn, who is adapting his own short film, “Smile” follows Rose (Sosie Bacon), an impossibly kind mental-health practitioner who has run into a nettlesome curse.

A creepfest about a curse that causes killers and victims to sport psychotically joyful smile knows exactly how to get under your skin, one unnerving ...

A cynic might think this is another example of a corporate behemoth trying to suck the life blood out of a successful formula concocted in an indie-boutique lab, but we prefer to think of it as spreading the arthouse-spookiness gospel via different avenues. the site of her own original-sin trauma, with the hopes of healing herself in order to rob this monstrosity of its power. Rose’s ex (Kyle Gallner), who happens to be a cop, helps her trace the lineage of that hospital patient back to her trauma, which is connected to a seemingly endless series of suicide-freakout-rinse-repeat. It simply is the manifestation of a viral evil that jumps from host to host, stretching the lips of a victim’s ghostly tormentors — and, eventually, those belonging to the unlucky soul being tortured as well — so far it appears their heads with horizontally cleave itself in half. The Smile is the constant. Then the woman kills herself in front of the doctor.