Smile (2022) | a Review
originally published on 08/10/2022;
Hello everyone, I am the not-smiling, disappointed and very much not haunted G.E.M.Simov, a goon of incredibly paranormal normalities, here to tell you about the horror film “Smile”.
Simple review details - I rank movies on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it.
A disclaimer - the terms 'movie' and 'film' will be used interchangeably in this review.
Presentation
Let’s get it out of the playing field - this is a horror movie. A modern horror movie. That means this movie has jump-scares. You ought to know what those are, and if you don’t - well, I envy you. A jump-scare is a collection of scenes that build up tension and culminate in the release of said tension through a startling depiction.
Tension is built up by establishing context that is slightly unsettling, by removing or lowering the volume of any music present to a nigh-imperceivable level, and making sure things move slowly. Through the established context there ought to be a hook - there’s got to be something that leaves the viewer a bit unnerved or curious. A closed door, or a door that is slightly ajar, and the character is moving towards opening the door. Or a corner that is slowly being rounded. Or something that will introduce a slight change to what is visible by the character, and as a consequence the audience, so that the director can slap in the jump-scare.
That, ladies, gentlemen and N-bees, is the moment when, suddenly (and that’s the key part) the music spikes, providing the audience with a needlessly loud explosion of sound, which, juxtaposed with the quiet from the preceding moments, is enough to startle the viewer (by triggering fight or flight). The needlessly loud sound is accompanied by a very swift motion of something filling the entire screen, creating the illusion of that something getting closer to the viewer, thus further exasperating the audience, exaggerating the need for a fight or flight response.
The jump-scare is a stinky thing that makes use of physiological responses outside of one’s control. It isn’t a means of conveying emotion to the audience - because it doesn’t scare the audience in a proper manner, but, rather, it startles the audience. The jump-scare is, most often, a crutch for bad horror movies.
As a result of that, any movie that makes use of the jump-scare is lower in quality than it could have been. Of course, if the movie makes use of a jump-scare without providing the audience with the monstrously loud sound cue that literally reads: “Get scared now, please!”, which sound cue is most often music (outside of the scene) going BANG! in the viewer’s ears, that’s not such a bad jump-scare.
However, jump-scares are bad in concept, as a result of which having jump-scares in a horror film indicates the film is simply not good enough at frightening the audience properly, through the concept of the ‘scary’ in itself. As a result of that, it should not be called a ‘horror’ film, but, rather, a ‘thriller’, for it gives the audience big thrills.
“Smile” gingerly and generously presents the audience with jump-scares. Many of them, annoyingly so, and all of them are worse than the previous. Each one of them is, essentially, the quintessential jump-scare. They are all, seemingly, made through the use of a mold. That’s not good.
But, strangely enough, this movie does the other thing that it ought to do, if it is a horror film, decently well. It builds up tension. It presents situations that are unnerving, to the point of being capable of nudging the reasonably active imagination of its viewers to think and consider. Leaving the cinema at night and walking home after watching “Smile”, and being left to your own thoughts, will, probably, lead into you thinking about the possibility of the events that transpired in the movie happening to you.
That’s neat. The concept is not bad, and the means of execution were good enough to introduce that proper fright to the viewer, to instill the horror within the audience. That’s done through the first half of the jump-scare. The context, coupled with the slow scenes. Things happening so slowly is not normal, is it? People tend not to take 15 seconds to round a corner. As a result of that, the sheer sight of that scene leaves a person unsettled.
And then having the context in mind - that there’s something out there, something that’s wrong, that’s out to get you - that adds to the problem. The audience is already slightly, mostly subconsciously, feeling a foul sensation as a result of the unusual approach to doing otherwise mundane things. The slowness of it indicates danger, and the audience gets in a position to pounce - ala tension.
But tension requires mastery to do right - unless, of course, one doesn’t just slap jump-scares in their movie left and right, in which case tension builds because the viewer knows that, were they to focus on the screen, they will get startled no matter what they do, and the knowledge of that impending nasty sensation is what builds up the tension. When there’s no certainty that a jump-scare will occur, that’s when the tension can be appreciated.
This movie does the build-up of tension well, because it features a lot of strange sights. These sights are not strange as a result of what they showcase, but, rather, how they are shown. Slow shots that display the world turning upside down, or slow turns, or even just positioning of characters in a scene - that’s all done, and that all helps.
They’re all unusual. They showcase stuff that’s not right. The world isn’t meant to be perceived upside down, right? No one moves so slowly so as to take that long to turn around, and so the slowness of movement is wrong. I think the most interesting thing about this movie’s Presentation, however, and I’m saying it as a great compliment to it, is the one time it had a ‘wow’ scene.
So, there’s two characters in this scene - a doctor and a patient. They’re in a room for 1 on 1 talks. The walls are barren and blue, and there’s very little in the room. The doctor enters and looks around, trying to find the patient, and finds them. The patient is situated in the corner of the room, as if they are pushed back against the wall, and the way they are situated in the shot - somewhat not centrally, but slightly to the side, and also appearing somewhat small… It was a really great look. I really, really liked it, and I can’t quite explain, but it seemed superb.
Right, that’s not me saying much of anything, but it conveyed a few things - it showed just how terrified the patient was. It showed that the patient is small, or maybe feels small. Smallness is associated with weakness and insignificance, and in the face of what was ailing that patient they truly were weak and insignificant, and every action they tried to take on was totally inconsequential.
The fact that the patient was shot against the wall like so, in the corner, was simple but effective. The patient is back against a wall, cornered, with nothing that they can do. But then there’s also the color of the wall, bright blue. I can’t totally explain why I found that so fascinating, but it irks me somewhat. Maybe it prompted me to consider just how improper the setting is, how soulless and inhuman the chamber wherein the doctor and patient have a meeting is?
That might be so, or perhaps there’s something else. I must admit, I just saw it and I found it scintillating.
What I did not like was how loud this movie was. Everything was loud. Very, very loud. That, naturally, really contributed to the jump-scares, but it made everything else less fun, because there was always going to be a jump-scare. The title-card was accompanied by music… Err, “music” which was so blaringly horrible and painful to listen to, while also being unbearably loud, that I was almost ready to leave the cinema right then and there. Unfortunately, I had paid too much not to see the movie to the end, so that’s that.
The music had a similar ring to it. It was loud and brash, borderline stupid at points, but then some tracks were very interesting. The music of this horror movie was intriguing, which I think might be a common thing among most horror films - they tend to have interesting music. But there were a pair, or more, tracks in this one’s score that were pretty neat.
Lastly, the CGI wasn’t bad. In fact, there wasn’t much that was bad about this film’s Presentation, safe for the loudness and the jump-scares. There might be the message and how it was either not intended or it was mangled by the movie itself… Either way, it’s decent. 2/3
Acting
There isn’t much for me to comment on here, other than the fact that the actors did a decently good job. Actually, decently good is putting it lightly. There was no corny stuff in this, there was nothing that seemed to be wrong with their performances. Sosie Bacon, as the main character, had a very good showing, in my untrained eyes, and the supporting cast did the supporting quite well, with them also getting a few good moments.
I must admit that I found the smiles presented by some of the actors to have been almost unbelievable - so distorted their faces appeared - but then I reckon that it wasn’t touched up, at least most of it. As a result of that, I’d like to say that it isn’t bad at all. There’s nothing for me to complain about, thus… 3/3
Story
This movie did a thing. A very dumb thing. It managed to develop a narrative that appeared to be heading somewhere, to be carrying a message with itself, only to then take that message and thrown it in the garbage bin.
This movie swirls about the concept of trauma, and as I watched it I started realizing that it could wind up being a wondrous metaphor for trauma. The characters who are being chased after by the villainous monster have all gone through trauma and have not managed to resolve their trauma. The monster, then, imposes even more trauma onto them and kills them shortly thereafter.
Thus, I gathered that one can view the movie as such - people who live with unresolved trauma inside of themselves are not really living. They’re somewhat deadened, or maybe they’re simply dead, because their trauma affects their lives in such a negative way that they can’t really refer to themselves as living. However, if a person can overcome their trauma, if that person can face this trauma and deal with it somehow, or reach some sort of acceptance with themselves, or perhaps reconcile with another, then that traumatized individual can go on to live.
Through the movie’s events, and considering the fact that the monster only assails people who haven’t dealt with their trauma, I was starting to think that this film could, actually, be very worthwhile, that it could have a valuable message attached to itself. Unfortunately, this film decided to be a horror film and end with the main character getting killed by the monster, with nothing being resolved.
In essence, the metaphor that seemed so clear and wondrously well weaved into the movie’s story, which metaphor could have been so good, was twisted into essentially reading: “Traumatized people are just not really people, because they’re going to forever carry their trauma within themselves and never manage to deal with it in any capacity and, thus, they’ll never really live, as a result of which they aren’t really fit to be classified as proper people.”
I don’t understand why the writer(s?) decided to do this. The movie could have ended in such a beautiful manner, it could have been so unbelievably satisfying and pleasant, so refreshing, too, but no. We can’t have nice things, we can’t have people learning how to live with themselves. Instead, we need a shitty ending that might allow for a sequel to come out.
Worst part of it all is that the concept is quite well thought out. The monster’s conditions are neat and intriguing, and the fact that nothing gets found out about the creature is also incredibly good. It remains mysterious and frightening, unnerving and even horrifying, throughout the entirety of the film. Maybe, at the very end, when the audience is shown its true(?) appearance it somewhat loses a bit of steam, but it remains well done.
But the fact that the story just ignores the magnificently natural conclusion it had built up for itself in favor of some shitty subversion… Nah. Nah. I mean it - nah.
As I said, the concept was well thought out - but then everything else seems to be perfectly aligned, too. There’s a faint mention of a house in the middle of the film, it’s almost inconsequential, but then the main character goes to that house and that’s where the final confrontation happens - and it’s superb because that house is mentioned, it’s hinted at, it’s set up, it’s important.
There’s stuff that gets presented to the audience in bite-sized chunks and then the audience can find correlations between the bits of information or wait for the bits to become a proper meal, and that’s really satisfying. There’s also a slight mystery that pops up, only for it to be resolved in a very obvious way. It was all SO good, up until the very end…
It could have been superb. Instead, it is disappointing and just downright saddening. 1/3
Legendary Point
Does this film get the legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time? NO, it does not, even though it was so close to actually getting it. I can not believe how horribly the story and its message were mangled. I know, horror films are known for being bad, for having no actual value other than the cheap thrills they provide, but I was hopeful. Maybe this could have been something good.
Alas, it wasn’t. 0/1
Conclusion
6/10. It’s an okay movie. I’d say watch it if you like shitty horror, but other than that it’s just not worth it. Could throw it on with friends… But it isn’t anything special. Just ANOTHER horror film.
In the bag of mediocrity it goes. It has a good shape, it had some potential, but the dust is all it’s gonna get.