Published on <A HREF="https://medium.com/horror-film-reviews/smile-2022-film-review-c378181f4279">my blog</A>.
After a premiere at <b>Fantastic Fest</b> and a creepy yet well-received marketing campaign (<a href="https://collider.com/smile-marketing-campaign-crowd-plants-baseball-games/">1</a>,<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/smile-movie-2022-baseball-games-mlb-b2176945.html">2</a>,<a href="https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3733606/smile-viral-marketing-hides-creepy-smiling-people-at-a-baseball-game/">3</a>), Parker Finn's much-anticipated <b><i><a href="https://boxd.it/xjfE">SMILE</a></i></b> debuts in theaters across the states on Friday, September 30, 2022.
In <b><i>SMILE</i></b>,
<blockquote><i>After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can’t explain. As an overwhelming terror begins taking over her life, Rose must confront her troubling past in order to survive and escape her horrifying new reality.</i></blockquote>
The writer/director's feature film debut is filled with scares galore throughout the film's two hour runtime. That said, there are a few points that I need to address. Before doing so, please note that I did enjoy the film, and believe it had a great cast, fantastic cinematography, and a great story to be told.
(There may be very minor spoilers ahead)
1. The film clocks in at just under two hours. I've seen other reviews complain that it was too long, and they were correct. In addition, there were many unnecessary, extended scenes that removed itself from the story, whether it being conversations among characters, attempts at prolonged jump scares, and/or daydream-like sequences.
2. The script wasn’t solid, but it helped drive the characters to steer from the main point of the film: <b>Find the source and/or why this is happening</b>. We did receive answers, but were then taken through a where-when scenario for the latter part of the film. While it did help piece things together, it didn't quite deliver as expected.
3. Per the above marketing campaign, the smiling characters really did help build the scares in the film. The long smile(s), stares and dead eyes provided for creepy characters to appear, some in a very dark setting, which hid the features if you didn't spot them, but the end product was CGI-heavy and, frankly, a little disappointing (but necessary as the film wrapped).
Overall, this is an impressive feature debut for Parker Finn. As I wrote above, it was well-directed and included an original story, but, like many films, it had its u̶p̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶d̶o̶w̶n̶s̶ smiles and frowns while creating an open-ended opportunity for more films to come.
Other films you may like: <i><A HREF="https://boxd.it/87wo">It Follows</A></i>, <i><A HREF="https://boxd.it/68oG">Contracted</A></i>
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