Yep- that’s what I thought too… no matter what you’re going through, “pull yourself up by your boot straps and SMILE!” Easier said than done & of course no one believes her! It all sounds nuts, but you can’t even be on her side, shut up & just listen to her? Let her say what’s happened? ------------/ NOW IM GOING TO COMPLAIN ABOUT A FEW THINGS I HATE IN ALL MOVIES: 1. I’m sick to death of scary movies which are filmed in the dark, with rain or fog or whatever, but they don’t allowed enough lights for the audience to even fully understand what we’re supposed to be looking at! Sometimes maybe they want it distorted but not every time. Good grief! We get it already “ it’s a dark & stormy night”… move on! 2. It kills me when they don’t resolve the ending! They say “we leave it to the viewer” as if they are doing us a favor when really they just didn’t know how to end it! Anyway, you’re giving me an ending I had no part of getting to! I probably would have done many different things in the story which would make the end different, so I don’t think so! I’m sure there’s more but that’ll do for now! Thank you for bringing some fun to these sad movies they make nowadays! I miss the days of stop action photo films! I do love the “Shudder” ap! Were they cheesy? 😂 💯 American but they were fun! Do you know these old movies?

I hated that, because after the first scene, the movie completely forgot she was a psych, and she acted like a complete idiot. A psych in that situation would lean on their training, and understand that they needed help. They definitely wouldn't be shocked to find the people around them don't automatically believe the story she's telling them. If she just didn't try to explain it, if she wasn't calling it an evil entity, if she was just describing her experiences, and provided the evidence that other people have the same experience, you could have gotten a whole lot of people to take it completely seriously and actually tried to figure it out. But instead, she just acts like a moron, everyone thinks she's nuts, and she completely blows it

I'm all for vengeance against psychs. What drives me nuts is, a situation that's totally communicable if you frame it correctly, and someone that should have been able to frame it correctly, because they were a shrink, but they just don't, because the fact she's a psych plays absolutely no part in her characterisation after the first scene.

@@lulairenoroub3869 Well she does try to explain it. She uses her psych studies to help her during the therapy sessions. But I'm guessing as the visons kept getting worse the more her sanity got worse. So she probably was at the point where she wasn't thinking straight and was just dead Set on trying to make it go away. Along with the fact that people witnessed her dead cat being pulled out of a box. So there's already too much stuff against her for them to even understand even with the help of her degree in psychology.

@@aidasalazar9702 I gotta be honest, that explanation doesn't work for me. It's not really in the text. You can explain any writing choices by saying "She's going crazy", but from my perspective, there's almost no difference in the script between, her being written as a shrink, or her being written as a baker. That fact should have had a bigger impact on her choices and her expectations in whole bunch of particular moments, but it didn't, because they wanted scenes to follow a structure that would have been interrupted, if the character was written with any real depth or history or consistency

That’s one powerful demon but I still don’t know everything about this villain. Was he controlling everyone? It was it all in the protagonists head?

Bro I almost cried it was so intense and upsetting

Dude that kid just pulled the cat out the box and I SCREAMED. WHY just whyy would you pull it out 😵😵

@@Elizafaye247 Uh....'cause he thought it was alive?.....😁

She should have included that book, 101 uses for a dead cat.

100% I haven't felt this uneasy at the cinema for about 10 years and I go a few times a week

@@oliversedgwick7236 yes! This is the first movie in a while I was shaken when I left the movie.

@@renmochizuki464 definitely, I felt faked out 😂 me and my boyfriend went in expecting something a bit shite and left in silence like "that was horrible.... was that really just that horrific?"

Oh this perspective just completely changed it for me. When I first saw it, the ending had me like HUH? But this makes perfect sense. Man now it’s sad lol rip.

The huge mom-monster thing i felt was a representation of an abusive parent seeming really big tall and overpowering when you’re a child

But what was the point of burning it down if she was still victimized by it immediately afterward? Also how would the boyfriend know where she was?

Hmm.. The boyfriend would have had access to her phones gps I would guess only thing I could think of

As someone who is dealing with active depression i think this ending really spoke to me and made me appreciate Smile way more. I feel like the metaphor for this curse is that depression cannot be fixed with just a smile, and with Rose’s sister expecting her to be as put together as her it enforces the theme of family not understanding trauma and mental health or taking it seriously, which is why in the end Rose is successful at letting go of her trauma with her mom, but unsuccessful at overcoming the curse or in my interpretation her battle with depression, just like the curse, her mental state deteriorates as she is sent on paid leave for a week and isolated from the distractions she used to use to keep her mental health stable. Great movie

If she had just killed the person she wouldn't have died but somebody else would have and when you're in the mental state of not sleeping for four days and being haunted by a demon you can't think properly

Failing to beat the monster is bread and butter for supernatural curse horror movies, every influence that inspired it ends with people either passing on the curse or dying, besting the monster is extremely rare in this subgenre

I actually thought maybe she would be able to break the curse at first. The ending was still terrifyingly satisfying. Maybe the ex bf will be able to figure out how to overcome it. Or the circle will just continue on forever

I think the problem is that she refused to take the therapists advice. Whenever her mother was mentioned she shot it down. She instead ran off to fix it herself when really she needed help processing it and coping with it. She didn’t sleep either so that only made it worse. Did her ex truly help her? I feel like he fed into her delusions. The therapist knew from the start but she didn’t want to hear it. Her boss knew too. That’s what they do. They never wanted to harm her or lock her away. She just didn’t believe them.

@@amazontiger1568 I instantly came up with a solution to break the curse, it's literally spelled out, you just kill yourself without a witness, no one left to pass it on the difficult part is the choice to actually kill yourself

Agreed!!

true, the jumpscares are not cheesy

@@ryandeguzman0308 but many were spoiled in the trailers

There were too many silky noises for me

i think we get so use to these artsy horror movies like it’s been awhile since they released classic 2000s horror, which i miss

I don't know... considering this movie definitely feels like it aligns more with demonic possession/forces feasting on trauma than how actual trauma/ptsd works. Like it's assumed that she blames herself for not helping her mom out of her suicide because her mother presumably was abusive and/or incredibly mentally ill, so her deciding to overcome that fear of being found out as basically 'a second degree murderer' makes sense. And in terms of the logic in the movie, the demon would take over the entirety of mankind because Trauma is passed around us every day lol History is full of traumas, and not to mention, we all have something we may feel guilty about, even small stuff. So I don't entirely believe, especially as a mental health professional, that she lied to herself in the end, because that's ultimately (and what is repeated throughout the script) eating her up inside, even to the point of her keeping that info away from her future husband and her ex. Imo too, she did try to talk about the suicide lol Like, there was literally nothing no one could do because everyone kept calling her crazy or psychoanalyzed her and didn't believe in any of the supernatural things she was seeing. Plus, her and the Ex didn't go to any pastors, witches, or any sort of supernatural professionals at all to get some sort of idea on how to stop it. Like if you go back and watch the film, ignoring was the least most thing she did towards the climax of the movie, and honestly they didn't win because... it's a demon movie in my eyes without any conjecture of supernatural help lol Yes, there are allegories to mental health, etc. but ultimately this for me doesn't entirely work as a psychological horror movie because we knew what was the villian the entire time and there were probably other possibilities of dealing with it/fighting it than just talking about whatever traumas they recently went through. This is especially because the guy in the Prison states that one of the ways to stay alive is to unalive someone lol Like I'm guessing the Entity needs a physical body, idk. But as a movie about mental health, I don't think it works that well... more about a struggle between believing in what is beyond our physical world and what is in our head. Mental illness is the wrong trajectory for a film like this because of the ending imo. It just says that it'll succumb to you and you to it, no matter what you do, unless you become homicidal or suicidal and are left wounded (thus making you want to k******* yourself) and/or wound others. Ig, it works with a message of how much our world is in a mental health crisis and how damaged (or damaging) society is, but idk, I feel like even that's reaching.

@Not Amy glad you addressed this. Good call on that.

That scene freaked me out! Still sticks with me.

I may or may not have cried during that scene

Totally agree, I knew it was gonna be something bad, was not expecting that & then how it played out after!

I almost cried during that scene tbh

@@unslaadkrosis9435no same i felt so bad for rose and mustache :(

100% agree. I didn’t think any of the jumpscares were basic. I thought they were great

@@calebsmall :) 👍

@@moistwrmonastring1017 agreed

I don't understand how she could conquer her trauma and fall to it very quickly like 2 minutes later.

I agree with you, only one jumpscare got to me but everything was supposed to be scary bc Rose was unhinged, she was not reliable at tall, she kept hallucinating during the whole movie, that makes you question and fear everything.

omg thank you 🥺

yeah usually I hate jump scares but they were validated here imo

@@namekirano no literally because it just added to how terrifying the movie already was so I didn’t even care that they were over the top LMAO

@@langstonjames6224 Smile is a good example that you can pull of multiple jump scares if the movie was already terrifying prior. I think jump scares work better when treating like an optional cherry on top

i love them if they're done well, if it's not like a cheap scare in a truly serious movie tackling a difficult issue or whatever. my mom loves suspenseful movies but she gets startled by everything so jump scares always remind me of being a kid sitting on the couch next to my mom dramatically gasping and jumping out of her skin lol

Stawp the jump scares were cheap.... Haunting of Hills house ep 6 jump scare WAS WITH THE SHOW./ These were cheap like a tart on the corner.

Another thing that I really enjoyed was there were several times when she was with Someone and the camera focused on her with other people nearby her going blurry , I felt like it really built tension cause I was expecting to see the smile as it refocused .

And that’s why they panned the camera upward when the therapist was following her down the stairs

@@HaileeJane exactly!!!

Y was her mom clearly latina, but her sister was blonde blue eyes total gringa... bad casting! The rest good.

I thought she was gonna kill the kid to get rid of the curse lol.

Yeah that would have been much better

Agree!

I agree with you, but not about the messaging. Every single film should not be a message. This is a horror film, so I could care less about any "message". I just hated the ending.

I KNOWWWW!!! This was also my favourite film of the year! AHHH!!!!! The creature was BEAUTIFULLY designed, and you can tell so much care was put into that animated sequence 😭 ugh, so good

Right????! So, the crazy guy in the beginning was right, nothing matter, everybody is going to die, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

They wanted a sequel it seemed like

yesss that's exactly what came to mind for me too. that movie also really creeped me out along with "the happening"

I liked the monster design because it reminded me that I had some leftover pork shoulder in the car I needed to give my brother after the movie 😓

I completely agree with you. It was soo good until they started using cgi to scare you.

Yeah I felt that, it became a lot less scary for me once they showed the monster, however disturbing it looked nothing beats fear of the unknown

I like your “Smile” in your profile pic

The main actress was PERFECT. I cannot get over her performance, oh my gosh

also while i agree there were TOO MANY jumpscares and a lot of them were predictable, i think some of them were done quite well! i wish we hadnt seen the dangling head one from the trailer bc that wouldve made me jump for sure. i also like how the smiling people she sees cant be seen by anyone and it’s in her head, that’s such an inescapable thing and a big reason why she wasnt able to isolate herself in the end bc she couldn’t differentiate what was real or what was truly happening

@@calebbatchman8598 yah the whole “only protagonist sees it” thing (at least in horror) is straight from It Follows. There’s also “lights out” influences

Yes! I love the sports promo too

Like Sarah said, Smile owes some of its scares to certain movies it took from. It also took from a movie called “Terrifying “

Agreed!

yesssss the entire thing reminded me so much of that, especially the ending

Yeah, I see that comparison a lot because of the posters for both movies and of course because of all the smiling. I initially thought Smile was also made by Blumhouse but it's not. I haven't seen Smile yet but it seems like a much better movie from the trailer alone. Truth or Dare had a great concept and trailer but it was just terrible for countless reasons imo.

I found that to be the main source of horror! The confusion of doing all you can and still failing - that's definitely what stuck in my head the longest from this movie

Yup. I was upset at first and took it personal because I also love the Ring but all it does is make the 2002 film look that much better 😂. Plus I appreciate Parker paying homage to that classic which obviously influenced a generation of horror. I wonder if he’s a fan of It Follows as well.

I’ll say Sosie the best part of the film. But not everyone agree with her being defeated on the end. But hey if there’s a sequel the new protagonist just might stop this villain

the ragged priest!

Yeah, I thought the ending was a little weird, too. Not horrible, and at least Joel has a leg up on everybody else on how the curse works 😬 It's too bad that confronting the trauma doesn't work but killing somebody else does ?? I actually thought her original plan would be to kill herself without a witness to stop the chain.

The ending message was effective but I will never watch it again for personal reasons. It makes it really hard to recommend too without upsetting someone I know. 😅

No you don't seem too bright 😡

Amen brother!

@@vibeveteran don't listen to my boyfriend lol

I don't think she killed her mother with malice, she was 10 years old and clearly scared of having to deal with the situation at hand. At that point, she didn't even had her sister. It's clear Rose tried to repay the what the she acted with her mom/guilt in committing 100% to her patients bc at the beginning they do point out how overworked she is.

@@veronicamoravega7754 I agree with you, I'm saying it would have been more interesting had she!! 🤣

It’s ironic because Japanese horror movies are always PRAISED for having little to no jump scares. Western hottie gets critiqued for “trying to hard” to scare ppl by using “cheap jump scares” an overused phrase. A couple of Smile scares were taken right out other films as Sarah said, even if they put their Jen did it on if. It’s fine I just hate Smile gets all the credit for it. Yes I think the spoiled scare on the trailer was the best one.

Lol I see your point, but atleast if you watched it again you know the surprises . It was fine movie but I disagree with the ending

I agree with this! The way that the entity could turn into anyone at anytime was really scary. I think another excellent scene from the movie was the birthday scene- the way that scene played out was so nightmarish. I was not expecting it 😭. I also feel like it was one of the best scenes that showed how much the curse wanted to mind fuck her and isolate her from others.

@@lessismore8533 same. It was set up to have such a good character arc and then they ruined that to get one more scare.

@@444_00 oh yeah. I was not prepared for that at all. The poor kid

Yah well Rings 2017 they didn’t do well on anyway. Just rehashing from older Ring films. The promo behind it was great tho. Yes the villain in Ring franchise has not been defeated yet. Though she’s my #1 fav horror villain, she must be stopped for there to be resolution . Even in Ring 2 when she was trapped” Rachel and Aiden were relieved but not necessarily happy. In Smile if she did what the prison guy told her, the villian likely would’ve been defeated. Whereas in the Ring franchise, even if all tapes were destroyed, Sam could still create more. Samara is a nearly invincible villian; so the writers would have to be clever about a resolution without changing certain rules at the last minute or contradicting past plots.