Review of Smile (2022) by Zneversleep — 21 Jun 2023

Ok movie to watch with friends.

Yeah, I know the horror genre doesn't benefit from watching it with friends, but since this film isn't one of those that make me feel scared, that's not a huge thing to consider. I'm not encouraging prejudice, though.

Smile feels bizarre sometimes, but that's it. Somehow, in some scenes, I actually got goose pimples. But unfortunately, the full potential it had was not reached. I believe true psychological horror movies have something in common: never-ending suspense. It's like, they develop the trama with horror elements and when you think the plot is gonna blow, they keep introducing **** at us. Hereditary is the perfect example of this. No need for dumb jump-scares, gore exaggeration, or bizarre CGI monsters. Our mind does this job when the trama itself is crazy enough. Jaws proved it.

Here, not even one jump scare works for me. The smiling scenes are only bizarre due to the uncanny valley. Gore itself is not enough when you don't care about the person getting stabbed. Also, the worst thing about this movie is the plot. If you watched If Follows, you get it fast asf. The only thing different is the message.

I know, watching it with friends is not fair to this film, but it is what it is. At least, I got curious about the ending and it caught my attention.