Opening night FantasticFest2022 film SmileMovie continues the summer of smart studio horror.
is one that comes with baggage at this point in the modern horror cycle. This story about therapist Rose being cursed by an entity that wields the smiling faces of those familiar to the accursed is yet another trauma-horror allegory, a metaphor that has become so overused it’s begun to become a bit of a joke.
However, the debut feature of writer/director Parker Finn and Fantastic Fest opening night selection looks to upend some of your potential assumptions about what this kind of movie — from a mainstream studio, no less — can actually be., at its best, is a bit weirder and more left-field than you may expect.
As strong as Finn’s atmospheric sensibilities are, his script isn’t always able to keep up. Following a strong first act that makes you believe you may just be in the hands of a new genre craftsman who really knows what he’s doing, Smile unfortunately sags in its middle section as Rose embarks on her investigative quest with cop/ex Joel to find the truth.
The ultimate destination is both surprising and frustrating, as the film suddenly again morphs into something much stranger and exciting than you would expect based on initial impressions of what this should be, but also ultimately does fold into becoming another overwrought allegory for its trauma throughline.
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