REVIEW: ‘Smile’ new twist on psychological horror

Ava Gulley, Reporter

The psychological horror film “Smile” stars Sosie Bacon as Dr. Rose Cotter, a psychiatrist who, after a traumatic experience with one of her patients, begins to notice an entity that is described to be disguised as normal people who are smiling and following her. The encounters with this entity cause Rose to become increasingly anxious and paranoid. No one seems to believe her or anyone else with similar experiences when seeking for help. This forces Rose to find a solution on her own so that she can escape the entity before she becomes the next victim.

“Smile” uses unique concepts that make this film horrifying. As a smile is not usually something to be alarmed about, this film uses smiling in the complete opposite way, creating unsettling visuals leading up to traumatizing events. When Rose first sees a patient smiling at her, she doesn’t think much of it. She realizes that this is becoming a problem when she constantly comes across more people smiling and staring at her.

Rose is a very complex character and runs into many obstacles she has to overcome. And as the film goes on, those obstacles only get bigger and worse. Bacon does an excellent job with her role as Rose and remaining convincing throughout the movie, as well as the rest of the cast.

I give this movie four stars out of five. This movie is very hard to watch during some parts, with the amount of gore and sensitive images shown throughout the movie. But overall, this movie has a very interesting storyline and an amazing cast who do very well at portraying their characters’ struggles. This is a great movie for people who love horror movies and are looking for something more psychological rather than just scary.