Movie Review: Smile

credit: Smile

It does feel as though a lot of people are a little too easy to scare and/or impress these days since Smile is a scary movie, but it’s not so terrifying that one can’t sit through it and try to figure out why people are calling it so terrifying. The movie starts off easy enough since Rose, the main character, is obviously overworked and stressed out since she looks like someone that’s been pulling a week or more of double shifts and seriously needs a break. When she takes on a patient that appears to be scared out of her mind for some reason, Rose has no idea what she’s getting into, especially when the young woman suddenly acts as though she’s absolutely terrified and is then being choked out by something that can’t be seen. Worse than that, after watching the young woman carve into her face and neck, Rose begins to see things and experience moments of confusion that continue to get worse. In terms of being scary, this movie is worth watching, but trying to imagine that it’s as terrifying as people have been saying it is, well, that’s kind of confusing. 

credit: Smile

The jump scares are bound to affect a lot of people. 

Jump scares are bound to get the attention of a lot of people since the nature of a jump scare is to make people jump and get them to cry out in terror. But while the jump scares in this movie are great, they’re also kind of predictable since when one feels that nothing has happened for a little while, it’s usually safe to assume that something is going to pop out around the corner or suddenly appear behind or right in front of one character or another. The jump scares in this movie weren’t all like that, as there was some variety, but it’s also safe to state that they weren’t too hard to predict now and then. The manner in which some of the best jump scares in this movie were devised hearkens back to a lot of horror movies that people have enjoyed over the years, and quite honestly, they were designed in a convincing manner. 

The story was interesting, thankfully. 

People that enjoy a good supernatural horror movie might like this one since it does follow a path that’s not too hard to understand and ends up as a tale that is balanced just enough to be interesting. Rose’s descent into madness is a trip that a lot of people might relate to, but given that she’s dealing with a supernatural entity that can be anyone it wants and can show up wherever it lies, it’s easy to see how anyone would become confused and ultimately scared out of their mind. But the manner in which her descent is shown tends to remind people that perception is something that a lot of people take for granted and that what we see and what we think we see can be affected by our mental state. 

credit: Smile

The best trick any supernatural entity can do is alter one’s perceptions. 

It’s interesting how so many supernatural threats end up seeking to alter a person’s perceptions, isn’t it? One might think that this is a tired way of getting to people, but when one thinks about it, this method of attack is actually ingenious since humans tend to pride themselves on knowing what’s real and what’s not. The trick of this is that most human beings think that they have a good handle on reality and that they know what’s what. This movie is another way to showcase that humans are not always in control of their senses and that they can be fooled in a lot of different ways. The fact that so many supernatural entities have been around for so long in the lore of their own movies makes it clear that any human that tries to stand against them is going to be in for a soul-draining fight at the very least, or a fight that they have no hope of winning. Even if a human has a chance in hell of winning, the deck is usually so stacked in a horror movie that a story has to fabricate a new way to win. That’s why the best idea is to make it appear that a human can win against an entity when in truth, they’re about to be royally screwed. 

It still doesn’t stand out as the scariest movie ever, but it’s okay. 

After so many years of horror legends attempting to outdo one another and become the scariest thing on the screen, it’s kind of tough to find anything that’s truly terrifying, and that can really put the fear of the unknown into the hearts of those who watch. It was scary, that’s easy to say. But was it bone-chilling scary? Personally, no, it wasn’t, but that’s something that each person gets to decide.