The following contains spoilers for Smile, as well as a discussion on suicide.
One of the most intriguing aspects of Smile is how it continued modern horror's knack for psychological attacks, working the mind of Rose (Sosie Bacon). Physical scares, as seen in flicks like Barbarian, will always resonate in the genre, but the mental narrative has taken center stage over the last few years. That has enabled the jump-scare to become important again, and Smile leans into that hard.
However, Smile has an intriguing balance to both sides of the coin, revealing Rose wasn't imagining things going bump in the night. In the shadows, it was actually a horrific ghoul haunting her as part of a sadistic curse. And in the process, Smile elevated its storytelling, producing the scariest scenes in the genre this year.
How Smile's Horror Sets Itself Apart
The first moment, which homaged slashers, kicked off the final act. Early in the film, Rose saw a patient kill herself during a therapy session, which led to the curse latching onto her. She then began hallucinating folks with devious smiles, haunting her and becoming deformed. That was the ghoul's way of breaking Rose's mind, pushing her to commit suicide so it'd transfer the curse to another witness.
But Rose found out she could break the curse if she killed someone, allowing it to jump to a witness in that scenario. She then visited her mental care facility with a knife hidden and began stabbing up a patient she thought had no hope for recovery. It was a graphic scene, with Rose plunging the blade into him several times. However, the man grabbed her hand, smiling and forcing the weapon into his torso.
Luckily, this was Rose having a nightmare in the parking lot, slowly realizing this gory way wasn't a solution. Still, it was a disturbing scene as no one expected her to attack a mentally ill person like that, or to think of it, even at her most desperate. That made it stand out more than the scenes in X and Pearl, adding a cerebral edge regarding the selfish nature of humanity.
Smile's Monster Horror Would Make David Cronenberg Proud
The second scene occurred when Rose confronted the entity at the home after her mom died of an overdose. Rose thought she had burned it, but the creature still lived. Not only did it imitate her mother, but it also added a demonic spin, petrifying Rose to the point of realizing she couldn't escape. Rose then ran back inside, but she saw her ex, Joel, trying to get in to save her, accepting defeat. If she let it take her with no witnesses around, it'd disappear, so Rose gave in.
It led to a scene that directors like David Cronenberg and John Carpenter would adore, with the being turning into its monstrous form, stretching Rose's mouth open and crawling inside like an insect-like parasite. It was horrific, even if it was a symbolic way of showing this was Rose's mind and body getting possessed. And the visuals definitely felt creative, bold and unafraid, giving horror fans an original sequence that stands out in 2022. But it also led to Rose smiling, ready to take her own life, not predicting Joel would have broken in and stumbled into the curse himself.
To see these terrifying scenes unravel, Smile is in theaters now.