SMILE

(director/writer: Parker Finn; cinematographer: Charlie Sarroff; editor: Elliot Greenberg; music: Cristobal “Christo” Tapia de Veer; cast: Sosie Bacon (Doctor Rose Cotter), Jessie T. Usher (Trevor), Kyle Gallner (Joel), Robin Weigert (Dr. Madeline Northcott), Caitlin Stasey (Laura Weaver), Jacket Sochet (Carl Renken), Kal Penn (Dr. Morgan Desai), Rob Morgan (Robert Talley); Runtime: 115; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey, Isaac Klausner, Robert Salerno; Paramount; 2022)

“If you caught the Japanese classic Ringu, you have a good idea what’s going down in this unsettling film.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Parker Finn in his satisfactory debut feature film directs and writes a familiar horror pic that he freshens up with new angles (smiles that no one else sees are created for surprising scary moments that our heroine sees on the faces of strangers that makes her think she will soon die). The plot revolves around a demonic spirit that clings to its victims’ traumas.

The gentle therapist Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon, the daughter of Kevin Bacon) treats patients at a public medical center. She’s a good therapist, but can’t help the graduate student Laura Weaver (Caitlin Stasey) who is shaken after witnessing one of her professors kill himself. Laura believes there’s a gross entity only seen by her that is stalking her after that distressful incident. This stirs up things from Rose’s troubled past (a traumatic childhood event) and it now forces her to come to grips with her new reality to survive.

As Rose struggles for sanity, there are many unpleasant scenes to take in. If you caught the Japanese classic Ringu, you have a good idea what’s going down in this unsettling film.

It’s a creepy film that relies on the unnerving performance of Sosie Bacon to convince you its nonsense plot is real, and she comes true.

REVIEWED ON 9/30/2022  GRADE: B-