One Of The Scariest Scenes In Smile Shows Some Teeth
(Welcome to Scariest Scene Ever, a column dedicated to the most pulse-pounding moments in horror with your tour guides, horror experts Chris Evangelista and Matt Donato. In this edition, Chris tells you to remember to "Smile.")
"Smile" is the biggest horror movie of the year, box office-wise, and I'll confess I didn't love the film when I first saw it (you can read my less-than-positive review right here!). But after revisiting the film recently I confess that I was a little too hard on "Smile" during my first viewing. Sure, it's not very original. But it's an effective, creepy, and surprisingly nasty studio horror pic with some disturbing gore and a great creature that pops up in the final moments. And it's those final moments we're here to talk about.
Which means spoilers follow.
The setup
There's a demon and/or supernatural force out there that latches onto you for about a week (you know, like the curse from "The Ring"). It drives you crazy, ruins your life, and makes you witness horrifying visions. And oh yeah, it plays on your established fears and mental state. Worst of all, the entire situation makes the victim seem so out of their mind that absolutely no one believes them, shrugging it all off as insanity — until it's too late!
The story so far
Dr. Rose Cotter is a psychiatrist who witnesses one of her patients violently die by suicide. The patient swears that something is following her, and right before she cuts her own throat she has a massive breakdown replaced by a calm silence — and a big smile. Haunted by the event, Rose begins to experience terrifying visions. Mental illness runs in Rose's family, and when she was a child she found her mother's dead body after her mother overdosed on drugs. So when Rose starts telling everyone about the terrifying visions, those around her think she's just going out of her mind, plagued by trauma.
Rose, meanwhile, teams up with her ex, a cop named Joel, to get to the bottom of things. She learns that the demon needs trauma to thrive — it forces people to die by suicide in front of others, thus creating more trauma and spreading itself onto the witness. Which means Rose's life is in danger. Eventually, Rose returns to where her story began — the house where her mother died.
The scene
Horror movies these days have made trauma a big bad. You're not haunted by ghosts, you're haunted by trauma. And sure enough, "Smile" does this, too. This may not sit well with some folks, especially since the film is so relentlessly bleak. The bleakness translates to the ending sequence, which is the scariest of the entire film. Eventually, Rose encounters an avatar of her dead mother. It is, of course, the demon in disguise, and it grows well over seven feet tall and rips off its damn face revealing a toothy ghoul underneath. That's horrifying in its own right — dig that creature design! — but then things go from bad to worse. Like her patient before her, Rose is horrified to the point of madness — and then calm. Joel bursts into the house to save the day, but he's too late. Rose, a smile on her face, has doused herself in gasoline — and she sets herself ablaze. Of course, she's doing this in front of Joel, which means the curse is now passed to him. There's no escape. Talk about terrifying.
The impact (Matt's take)
Often, "familiar" gets tossed around as a negative critique against movies — but it's more about the execution. Most genres are based on familiarity, especially horror. How different can the structure of a haunted house film be after thousands? It's the execution where differentiation kicks in and sprouts individuality. "Smile" uses shapeshifters, looming figures, and jump scares like many before, except the mental health angle and possession elements are a cut above.
Now, the ending we're dissecting is a tough one. Mental health is a topic I cannot weigh in on with professional or doctorate knowledge, but others who can have noted the divisive nature of Rose Cotter's fate. It's undoubtedly horrifying to realize Rose can't escape her traumas (represented by Smile Man), to the point where death is inevitable. Unfortunately, that messaging might also present a problem to some.
As is, director Parker Finn spikes the bleakest possible outcome down the audience's throats. That inescapable gloom, Rose thinking she's safe, only to harm herself and pass the curse onward? "Smile" notches scare after scare, yet its ending blows everything prior out of the water. For multiple reasons, horror is complicated and terrifying — that's what Finn honors. Love it or hate it, the ending to "Smile" will stick around long after the film closes.