Three days ago I had to watch the new horror film, “Smile.” I am still having trouble sleeping at night because of this movie.

   I don’t particularly like scary movies in the first place, but this one especially freaked me out. 

   “Smile” is a very suspenseful movie that  also has some paranormal themes as well.

   The movie premiered on September 30, 2022. It had a run time of 115 minutes, and  is rated R.

   The remainder will contain spoilers of the plot so continue with caution.

   The story follows a week-long experience of a psychologist, Dr. Rose Cotter.

   Dr. Cotter first sees a patient who was a PHD student that began acting strangely. 

   The student told Dr. Cotter that after she saw one of her professors bludgeon himself to death with a hammer, strange things began happening. She said when he did it he smiled at her creepily.

   Ever since the incident with her professor she started encountering an entity. She said it’s like it would wear people’s faces and tell her sadistic things with a smile.

   The patient then freaked out and knocked over the table and broke the vase that was on it. She fell down and Dr. Cotter tried to console her.

   The patient appeared to be suffocating without anything actually suffocating her. She then abruptly stood up and creepily smiled at Dr. Cotter. The patient then proceeded to pick up a piece of the vase that had been broken by the prior outburst.

   The patient then ended her own life with the broken vase shards.

   This terrified Dr. Cotter. She immediately called for help. Then shortly after Dr. Cotter began seeing the same things that her patient did.

   An entity started following her, it would appear as normal people, and then smile a terrifying grin. It also would tell her things like she was going to die soon.

   Dr. Cotter was going insane because of this. Her fiance, sister, and therapist wouldn’t believe her. She then confided in her ex-boyfriend, Joel, who is a police officer.

   She asked him to follow the trail of suicides. The PHD student saw her professor end his life, the professor had watched someone commit suicide a few days prior, and so on.

   Dr. Cotter realized she would be next if she didn’t do something. She came to the realization that that the entity needed a witness to transfer to. 

   Dr. Cotter’s solution was to isolate herself. She returned to her childhood home where her mother had ended her own life.

   The entity appeared as her mother and put on quite a show to scare Dr. Cotter. There were a few moments where I thought the film would end with Dr. Cotter overcoming her mind and breaking the power of the entity.

   It seemed that she overcame and broke the curse. She ran out of her childhood home when the curse broke.

   Dr. Cotter went to Joel’s house once the curse was broken. She tried to confide in him, but then he became the Smile entity.

   She was then thrown back into the childhood home while the entity smiled at her and laughed at her triumphant failure. 

   Joel had followed her to the home and wanted to help her. He broke down the door, but when he did it was too late. 

   Joel opened the door just in time to see Dr. Cotter end her life, and then the film ended.

   Overall the movie was very well made. The film was crystal clear and had great audio. 

   I get scared really easily so this probably wasn’t the best movie choice for me. 

   I do think the ending wasn’t the best. I wanted the movie to end with the “face your fears” theme when Dr. Cotter took back control of her own mind, but they took the route that would lead to a sequel instead.

   The ending felt a bit rushed and overall the movie was relatively predictable. 

   After recounting the details of the movie, maybe it wasn’t actually that scary. Now that I think of the actual plot, the movie was pretty cheesy to be honest. 

    I would give the movie a 4/10 based on predictability, frequent jump scares, rushed ending that was only set-up for a sequel, and because it gave me nightmares.