Smile: Neon NZ Review

Cast: Sosie Bacon, Caitlin Stasey, Jessie T Usher, Judy Reyes, Kal Penn, Kyle Gallner
Director: Parker Finn

Smile may not be a new take on the horror genre, and its so-called examination of trauma is more surface level than anything deeper, but its mix of unsettling imagery and jump scares prove to be powerful enough.

Retooled from his short film Laura Hasn't Slept, Parker Finn's debut centres around Sosie Bacon's Dr Rose Cotter, an overworked doctor whose world is irrevocably changed when she witnesses the suicide of walk-in patient Laura (Tomorrow, When The War Began's Caitlin Stasey).

Laura claims she's being haunted by something smiling at her, and that she only had a certain amount of time left to live - but Rose dismisses this as being nothing more than the rantings of an on-edge patient. But as Rose begins to see similar apparitions to Laura's claims, she begins to realise she too has been cursed - can she convince those around her before it's too late?

Smile doesn't do anything fresh if you're familiar with the likes of It Follows, The Ring or any other curse-based horror film. But what Finn constructs is a deeply troubling and haunting film that has a twisted psychological bent to it.

While the final act's need for explanation and the desire for the curse creature to have a backstory would hint at a franchise, the film's agency isn't quite robbed by its pointless need for exposition. Largely forgetting that a killer that's relentless and can't be stopped is one of the stronger tenets of horror, Finn slightly torpedoes what he does so well early on.

Equally, the so-called exploration of trauma and grief may be triggering for some, but Smile's need to hint at more proves to be a frustratingly hollow experience outside of some truly well-orchestrated scares.

With slow deliberate camera movements, inverted angles, a truly exemplary soundscape and a quiet sense of pace, Smile manages to unnerve in many ways throughout. With its 70s-style horror aesthetics hinting at this feeling like an old film, and Bacon's slowly coming unravelling Rose continually being gaslit, there's much to enjoy and feed on in Smile.

It's thanks to Finn's sense of timing and some extremely common horror themes and imagery that Smile emerges as one of the better psychologically disturbing entrants into the genre - whether those simple flaws are to be exploited through numerous prequels and sequels remains to be seen, but for now, Smile is a film that is an abrupt and efficiently unsettling ride.