🎬 Smile (2022) – Trauma wears a grin

She helps people face their pain—until pain starts smiling back

Smile (2022), directed by Parker Finn, is a slow-burn psychological horror that turns an everyday expression into a terrifying curse. What begins as a haunting encounter with a troubled patient spirals into a deeply unsettling journey through grief, inherited trauma, and a supernatural force that feeds on fear. With its creeping tension, unnerving visuals, and layered metaphor, Smile isn’t just about what lurks in the dark—it’s about what we carry within us.

The story follows Dr. Rose Cotter (played by Sosie Bacon), a clinical therapist who witnesses the gruesome suicide of a young patient. Just before dying, the patient delivers a chilling warning and a wide, unnatural smile. From that moment on, Rose begins to experience disturbing hallucinations and a relentless feeling of being watched. Those around her dismiss her fears as psychological breakdown—but Rose starts uncovering a terrifying pattern: a curse that passes from victim to victim, each marked by a smiling entity that drives them to madness and self-destruction.

What sets Smile apart from typical curse-horror films is its emotional depth. Rose isn’t just fighting a monster—she’s battling the scars of her own unresolved trauma. The film cleverly blurs the line between psychological illness and supernatural intrusion. Is she cursed, or is she losing her mind? The ambiguity builds a slow-burning dread, where even the brightest scenes feel oppressive. And when the horror hits, it doesn’t hold back—delivering disturbing imagery that lingers long after the credits roll.

Sosie Bacon gives a raw, heartbreaking performance that elevates the entire film. As Rose unravels, the audience is drawn into her increasingly fractured reality. She’s desperate, terrified, and utterly alone in a world that demands she smile and move on—exactly the point the film critiques. Smile weaponizes social expectations, turning the idea of "putting on a brave face" into something literally monstrous.

Stylistically, the film uses sound and framing to brilliant effect. Unsettling close-ups, sudden silences, and slow reveals keep the audience in a constant state of unease. The iconic wide, dead-eyed smile becomes a recurring motif, appearing in moments of unbearable tension. It’s not just creepy—it’s wrong, in a way that feels deeply unnatural.

Underneath the horror, Smile explores the generational nature of trauma—how pain left unspoken festers, spreads, and consumes. The curse becomes a metaphor for unhealed wounds, passed down and ignored until they destroy. In the end, it’s not just a ghost story—it’s a cry for help that no one wants to hear.