Smile is a new horror film directed and written by Parker Finn. After some short films, this is only his first real directing work.
The film is about psychologist Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) who learns about a dark evil after a traumatic event with a new patient.
This same evil continues to frighten and endanger her after this event. To stop this evil, she must learn its origins, but in doing so she is confronted with her own traumatic past.
Film studio Paramount has tried to keep this film a bit of a secret and only promoted it with a hidden teaser on some films. Once the trailer hit the internet, it received a lot of positive attention. Because of this, the film studio decided to release the film in theaters, because at first the film would only be released on their streaming service. For example, they eventually had novice director Parker Finn direct this film and had it come up with a suitable story.
For a first film, Parker Finn manages to portray the film beautifully and appropriately. He knows how to create creative transitions between some scenes. The images can only come across as somewhat familiar to horror fans, because many scenes come across in similar ways to scenes from other films, especially well-known horror films.
Despite Parker Finn's good work, Paramount could have arranged for some extra people to give him some extra support. The story of the film is good, but not really original. Horror connoisseurs can quickly compare the story with stories from other horror films such as The Ring of It Follows. For example, the film can at times become a bit predictable for horror connoisseurs, who can then roughly predict what will happen in the film and thus anticipate the story itself.
Parker Finn knows how to create a good tension with the way in which he manages to portray things together with an appropriate soundtrack and further frightening sounds. Unfortunately, this often only leads to a simple jump scare. After the umpteenth time, this can start to seem faint rather than being really scary. This allows the film to lose its tension level a bit.
Parker Finn does try to bring out some other horror ways during the end of the film, but these are no longer as strong or frightening. If he had been more creative earlier in the movie with different horror elements, the movie could have been better and scarier. Around the end, he also seems to lose some of his focus, so that all of a sudden everything happens and seems to be possible.
Despite the fact that Sosie Baconmeer is known as a TV actress, she knows how to deliver good and appropriate acting in this film. She comes across as someone who continues to be plagued by evil and must try to relive her traumatic past. She knows how to carry the film well, because the rest of the film cast is also more actors from TV series or small film roles. Most of them play their roles well, but with most of their characters it is possible to predict what will happen to them.
The film is about psychologist Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) who learns about a dark evil after a traumatic event with a new patient.
This same evil continues to frighten and endanger her after this event. To stop this evil, she must learn its origins, but in doing so she is confronted with her own traumatic past.
Film studio Paramount has tried to keep this film a bit of a secret and only promoted it with a hidden teaser on some films. Once the trailer hit the internet, it received a lot of positive attention. Because of this, the film studio decided to release the film in theaters, because at first the film would only be released on their streaming service. For example, they eventually had novice director Parker Finn direct this film and had it come up with a suitable story.
For a first film, Parker Finn manages to portray the film beautifully and appropriately. He knows how to create creative transitions between some scenes. The images can only come across as somewhat familiar to horror fans, because many scenes come across in similar ways to scenes from other films, especially well-known horror films.
Despite Parker Finn's good work, Paramount could have arranged for some extra people to give him some extra support. The story of the film is good, but not really original. Horror connoisseurs can quickly compare the story with stories from other horror films such as The Ring of It Follows. For example, the film can at times become a bit predictable for horror connoisseurs, who can then roughly predict what will happen in the film and thus anticipate the story itself.
Parker Finn knows how to create a good tension with the way in which he manages to portray things together with an appropriate soundtrack and further frightening sounds. Unfortunately, this often only leads to a simple jump scare. After the umpteenth time, this can start to seem faint rather than being really scary. This allows the film to lose its tension level a bit.
Parker Finn does try to bring out some other horror ways during the end of the film, but these are no longer as strong or frightening. If he had been more creative earlier in the movie with different horror elements, the movie could have been better and scarier. Around the end, he also seems to lose some of his focus, so that all of a sudden everything happens and seems to be possible.
Despite the fact that Sosie Baconmeer is known as a TV actress, she knows how to deliver good and appropriate acting in this film. She comes across as someone who continues to be plagued by evil and must try to relive her traumatic past. She knows how to carry the film well, because the rest of the film cast is also more actors from TV series or small film roles. Most of them play their roles well, but with most of their characters it is possible to predict what will happen to them.