Smile

"Once you see it, it's too late."

2022 1h 55m EN

👍

6.7

SOLID

★6.7TMDB · 4,302

HorrorMystery

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can't explain.

“Once you see it, it's too late.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Sosie Bacon
Rose Cotter
Kyle Gallner
Joel
Jessie T. Usher
Trevor
Robin Weigert
Dr. Madeline Northcott
Caitlin Stasey
Laura Weaver
Kal Penn
Dr. Morgan Desai
Rob Morgan
Robert Talley
Gillian Zinser
Holly

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Parker Finn
Writers: Parker Finn, Juan Sanchez
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $217M — a 12.8× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 4 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Smile Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CAST

Did you know

268+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Parker Finn, shot by Charlie Sarroff. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Cristóbal Tapia de Veer. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Elliot Greenberg shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Sosie Bacon and Kyle Gallner and Jessie T. Usher carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Parker Finn directs. Charlie Sarroff behind the camera. Cristóbal Tapia de Veer scores. Elliot Greenberg cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Grossed $217M — a 12.8× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
2Released 4 years ago.
3Part of the "Smile Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
4268+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
5Directed by Parker Finn, shot by Charlie Sarroff. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Cristóbal Tapia de Veer. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Elliot Greenberg shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Sosie Bacon and Kyle Gallner and Jessie T. Usher carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "Once you see it, it's too late.".
10IMDB entry: tt15474916 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 20 themes, including "suicide", "new jersey", "post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd)", "therapist".
12Released under 17 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Charlie Sarroff
Original score: Cristóbal Tapia de Veer
Editing: Elliot Greenberg
Production design: Lester Cohen
Costume design: Alexis Forte
Makeup / hair: Sasha Grossman
VFX supervisor: Yuval Levy
Sound: Dan Kenyon
Stunt coordinator: Mark Fichera
Runtime: 115 min · 1h 55m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $17,000,000
Box office: $217,408,513
Return: 1279% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Smile (2022)

Part of

Smile Collection

The Smile collection consists of American psychological supernatural horror films based on an original story written by Parker Finn. The overall plot centers around a curse where One infected person is consumed, the entity forces them to take their own life and then the witness becomes cursed.

Also by

Parker Finn

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

The Movie Mob2022-09-29
★ 2/10
Smile’s creepy trailers and clever marketing were the best parts of a movie with a meager plot drenched in uneasy sounds, and way too many jump scares. Smile obsesses over saturating every moment in unsettling dread. The score and sound effects make every moment uneasy and uncomfortable, and not in a good way. Smile’s premise bore many similarities to It Follows with much poorer execution. Smile stumbled from jump scare to jump scare. I started closing my eyes because the jump scares were so predictable, and I was tired of having disturbing images screamed in my face. I will say that Sosie Bacon did an excellent job with what she was given, with her performance being the only bright spot in the film. Unfortunately, the movie was unimpressive and tried to cloak mediocrity in a fountain of jump scares, stressful noises, and unpleasant moments.
Nathan2022-10-14
★ 7/10
As an avid horror fan, I can genuinely say that Smile unsettled me beyond belief. In many horror films of today, directors rely solely on jump scares to create this sense of shock and horror. But in Smile, Parker Finn is able to build suspense and tension throughout a scene to then crescendo into a jump scare that the audience knows is coming but are so tense that they cannot help but to release into fright. While this movie does not break major ground in terms of plot and storytelling there is some depth that is added with mental health and the feeling of isolation during manic episodes. I felt for Rose throughout this entire film, as she used to be the one helping patients through mental crisis and now that she is having one of her own, she is met with the same doubts even though it is a genuine fear. The sense of hopelessness grows throughout the movie as hope drains from our lead actress. Speaking of our lead actress, Sosie Bacon is fantastic in this movie. She carries every single scene she is in, which is just about every one. Her minor facial movements and eye expressions were so sad and realistic to that of someone experiencing trauma. I loved everything about her performance and will be excited to see her moving forward. The other performances were average across the board, but they didn't really have a lot to work with and filled their roles well. Jessie Usher felt a little out of place though, I feel like he did the nice and charismatic husband role well but when he had to display genuine fear and anger he overacted quite a bit. Finally, I wanted to touch on the ending. I am not going to spoil anything for the audience, but this is exactly what I wanted throughout the entire film. I kept asking myself, are they going to do it? But second guessed myself and when the payoff happened, I left the theater with a big Smile on my face. Score: 75% | Verdict: Good
CinemaSerf2022-10-21
★ 5/10
"Dr. Rose Cotter" (Sosie Bacon) is a dedicated clinical psychologist who witnesses the gruesome suicide of a young woman in her hospital consulting room. Traumatised, as you might expect, she gradually starts to suffer from unexpected goings on in her own life. Her relationship becomes unstable and soon she appears to have but a tenuous grasp on reality herself. What's going on? Is she doomed to a similar fate? This has something of the "Azazel" theory to it, and as the story develops director Parker Finn manages to build quite a degree of mystery and suspense. The malevolence of her haunting spirit is well captured by those working the audio - the sound effects and the score contribute well to the overall feel of this film. The acting though, well I am sorry - I found that to be a terrible let down. Initially, Bacon owned the film but after a few moments she just hadn't the weight to carry the thing in what is, essentially, a one-hander. Her support comes mainly for her ex-boyfriend/cop and all round sceptic about the whole thing "Joel" (Kyle Gallner) after her boyfriend "Trevor" (Jessie T. Usher) and her own erstwhile psychiatrist played by an indifferent Robin Weigert give up the ghost with her. Sadly, they offer little to add depth to this rather superficial horror effort. There are jump moments, but they lose their potency as this actor fails to capitalise on the tensions being created around her. Perhaps had the story spent less time on her character development, and the pace been tightened up a bit then we might have had less time to worry about that; but the style of the photography with too many lingering images merely serves to sterilise the whole thing for me. I was really disappointed, and after a while just wanted to go watch "Fallen" (1998) instead.