Despite some of its missteps, the horror film's theme of inheriting mental illness and walking down a path that you have lived dreading all your life is poignant. The world is a stage and we are all storytellers. We tell stories about ourselves to ourselves; stories that hold the power to either liberate us or trap us.
Here's how the 2022 film Smile uses trauma to tell a terrifying story about guilt and overcoming past horror. This article contains spoilers for the movie Smile. Smile is the latest horror film to use metaphors pertaining to the darkest human emotions and experiences.
In the end, Smile is all about the vicious cycle of trauma, as the entity embodies how it can be passed on to people who witness others suffer the same way. But the film also displays how society continues to stigmatize mental illness by using words like “crazy” or “headcase” and pushing away people who live with it.
The final image of the film is Rose's burning body reflected in the iris of Joel's eye, burning itself onto his psyche forever. Even though Rose did everything she was supposed to do — that we're supposed to do to process our own trauma — the monster still won. The cycle will continue.
The Smile Entity, also called The Monstrosity or simply The Smile Demon, is the main antagonist of the 2020 horror short film Laura Hasn't Slept, as well as the titular main antagonist of its 2022 film adaptation/sequel Smile.
Smile turns that into a literal monster only the victim can see, as though it's a hallucination. The parallels to actual psychosis are striking, and that's why everyone around the main character Rose Cotter initially believes it to be a post-traumatic breakdown as a result of witnessing a suicide.
The ending of the 2022 horror movie Smile sees Joel (Kyle Gallner) arriving at Rose's childhood home and realizing that she is too far gone to help. Rose sees the monster, has a mental breakdown, and can't move. She truly and fully embodies the curse by starting a fire with her own body.
For most of the movie, Rose is left to face this demon on her own, but it's clear she's been forced to deal with her demons all by herself for years. The stigma that can come with mental illness has taught Rose to smile through her grief so as not to make others uncomfortable.
We can confirm that there is NOT an end credits scene after Smile, so feel free to leave the theater when the credits start to roll. Here is the synopsis for the movie: “After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr.
The monster in Smile is never named or properly defined. Rose believes it's a curse or a malevolent entity that attaches itself to the victims of trauma. Whatever it is, it's exceptionally evil and takes malevolent delight in taunting and torturing those it targets.
Trauma as contagion
Her sister, Holly (Gillian Zinser), turns her away, confessing she's spent decades trying to move on from their traumatic childhood (their mother committed suicide). Rose's erratic behavior reminds her of their mother's mental illness.
Since Rose lost her troubled mother to suicide at a young age, the entity exploits this by assuming the form of her later mother. However, a surprisingly collected Rose speaks to the entity (in the form of her mother) and forgives her mother for her struggles and Rose's younger self for being unable to help her.
In Zagreb, 1898, the middle-aged Vlaho Bukovac is determined to leave his home because of envy and intrigues of environment, and move to his native Cavtat (near Dubrovnik) with his young wife Jelica and children.
Rose begins experiencing hallucinations induced by the demon. Shortly after, she has trouble finding her cat, Mustache, and its tragic fate is revealed during her nephew's birthday party. The boy opens Rose's present to discover her cat's dead body.
As Joel walks in, Rose is wearing that familiar creepy smile and has covered herself in gasoline – about to light a match. So no, Rose does not survive in Smile and even worse, it seems the curse has found a way to keep itself going, with Joel now presumably set to be its next victim.
Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon), a therapist who begins experiencing hallucinations after witnessing a patient take her own life. The patient, Laura (Caitlin Stacey), saw her professor die by suicide, after which she became the target of a presence with a sinister smile.
Northcott (Robin Weigert) reveals herself to be the demon. Her own therapist attacks her and shatters the sacred trust between doctor and patient — it's a shocking moment that represents the ultimate betrayal.
The smile curse operates in a fairly consistent fashion throughout the film. One infected person is consumed, the entity forces them to take their own life and then the witness becomes cursed.
Smile 2 has been confirmed by Paramount following the runaway success of the first Smile film, which was released back in September 2022. A sequel to Smile has been confirmed following the incredible success of the first movie.
Along with the story's many loose ends, the cinematography was unnecessarily dizzying. Many shots and transitions throughout the film were upside down or spinning, and although in some movies this would go along with the plot or overall theme of the story, in Smile, it was needless.
It's about unsettling imagery and the fine line between sanity and insanity that we face – that is what makes it scary as hell.
In Parker Finn's feature debut, a doctor is haunted by people who grin maniacally before committing brutal violence.
This is an extremely scary, graphic horror movie that should not be taken lightly. I have seen my fair share of horror movies over the years but this one definitely has a different feel to it. It is chilling, unnerving, and very difficult to watch sometimes. It keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire movie.
The film's climax has Rose isolating herself in her abandoned childhood home to avoid passing the curse to someone when her time comes; this self-imposed isolation forces Rose to deal with her trauma.