Smile

I was pretty hyped for this movie, not going to lie. I wasn't expecting some 11-time Oscar winning masterpiece, but I did expect an intense, edge-of-your-seat scarefest like that of 'Insidious' or 'Sinister', where the movie is dripping with creepy unsettlingness from start to finish. 'Smile' is not that. What 'Smile' does well is build up the jump scare, but unfortunately (and more importantly), 'Smile' forgets to deliver the scare in each of these sequences it repeats throughout its way overlong 2-hour runtime.

Example, the main character will be staring down a dark hallway while the music tenses and camera slowly zooms in, and then the phone will ring SO LOUD. This is NOT a scare! This is just lazy and, above all, annoying. These "jump scares" happen throughout the ENTIRE movie and are extremely obnoxious. I can respect jump scares if there's actually something scary at the end of the build-up, not just an obnoxiously loud noise that has nothing to do with the tension that was just wasted. An example of an ACTUAL jump scare would be like when the Lipstick Demon appears at the table for the first time in 'Insidious'. THAT is a warranted jump scare.

The plot of 'Smile' and the way the characters unravel it is almost identical to 'The Ring'. No new ground is broken, which was expected, but I at least expected a little more originality than a copy/paste story of 'The Ring' with a good amount of 'It Follows' copied as well, yet is far less than both those movies.

What I thought was pretty good was the ending, when the demon finally reveals itself. The design of the demon and what it does to its victims is actually pretty great/gruesome. Unfortunately, by the time we're introduced to the Smile demon, the movie's over. Such a shame, as this movie could have been a balls-to-the-wall nail-biting chiller. The score for this movie was hands-down the best and creepiest part. The music reminded me of 'Sinister's music, as in there was something off about it, making it unnerving.

Overall, this movie has been done before and done MUCH better. Has it's moments, but drags on without any scares for far too long.

6/10.

Went to watch this movie with no prior expectations, or even having watched the teasers. The plot was unique, the production very nice. All of the cast did a great job at acting, especially the main actress. Can't wait to check out more of her work. There were a decent amount of solid jump scares throughout the movie, and I'm not one to easily get scared. The movie also had a very omnious feeling to it right from the start, which greatly elevated the experience of watching it. All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by this movie, and consider it one of the better horror movies I've watched this year!

The plot was basically a mixture of Lights Out and It Follows, two fantastic horrors. SO.. the actual plot of this movie owes a lot to the tropes within the genre It shouldn't work, there's not much fleshed development behind "the why" of the monster so this movies spends a while figuring out "the how." It was a bit tedious to discover what was happening in terms of the curse, the way it jumps from person to person. The typical "main character is not believed because she's a hysterical woman" plot device. I mean, that's been going on since Rosemary's Baby, but that plot was much more developed and there was reasoning behind it.

There's a wonderful performance from Sosie Bacon at the helm. You really root for her character. But the fiancé is a cliche, you wonder why they're even together.

Overall, what makes this movie are the jump scares. They are effective and unpredictable. The cinematography is also very moody and atmospheric.

You will be frightened. A good effort and looking forward to more from the writer/director.

One of very few horror movies that managed to surprise me this year. When the trailer came out, I thought it was gonna be another dumb, incompetent mess.

I was proved wrong.

From the very start, everything from the directing, performances to the cinematography and sound design were absolute stunning. How a low budget managed this feat was beyond me but the film was simply mesmerizing to look at.

The horror was quite effective with jumpscares and dreadful moments, albeit some cheap ones but not that distracting. They were able to build up the tension so well and never intended to tone it down right till the very end. The plot was simple enough to interlink all relevant characters to make me care about them, although some could complain 90% of the characters were just filler and I might agree with that. However, the protagonist was good enough to carry the whole show.

One thing that may not sit well with a lot of audience was the use of mental illness. Smile handled it decently but don't expect Oscar worthy exposition. And no, it wasn't exactly the main theme so try not to quit halfway through because there would be surprises by the last act of the film.

Give it a go. I'd say it was well worth the time for horror fans like myself. This was not just some Annabelle or Insidious sequels but something more.

This movie had me scared and on edge from start to finish. It's been a long time since I saw a horror movie this good.

The story is a bit cliche at some points, but it is well written and well made most of the time. The acting is great as well, which is not always a common thing when it comes to horror movies. It is very well directed and the atmosphere is really eerie.

The first girl to die in the movie probably had the most unpleasent smile I have seen in maybe my whole life. Especially when the therapist started seeing her in the darkness as an hallucination. That really gave me the chills. Then there were some smiles that was not very scary, like the patient Carl. The pacing of the movie was excellent. It got more and more creepy as the story progressed. The ending really etched into my brain, and I actually thought I was gonna have nightmares that night, which does not happen to me very often. The day after I saw this movie, a car passed me by, and the old man driving looked at me and smiled... The only thing I could think about was this movie.

This was Parker Finn's first feature film. I really hope he makes more films like this one. A good start on his writing/directing career. Well done!