"Smile", a dark and haunting psychological thriller that offers some new ideas for the horror genre. The film examines the mental breakdown of Rose, a therapist who works in a hospital's psychiatric ward. Some blame her mental decline on working too much while others believe that she's suffering from the same mental disorders that plagued her mother, who had finally succumbed to suicide. The truth is that she's been cursed, or marked, by an evil force that is taunting her until it finally possesses its victim, causing them to kill themselves violently in front of a witness.
It was a normal day in the psychiatric ward for Rose until Laura was brought in. She was having a manic episode, reportedly suffering from insurmountable stress ever she witnessed her professor kill himself in front of her nearly a week before. She begs for Rose to just listen to her, that she is seeing people that others can't, and that she needs help. Rose begins to respond her as if she is delusional, and Laura realizes that Rose does not believe her. She pleads and pleads but suddenly stop. Laura's behavior abruptly alters, she quiet and smiling directly at Rose, and before Rose can react, Laura takes a shard of clay from a broken flowerpot and fatally cuts herself. Afterwards, she is interviewed by police detectives, one of which is a former boyfriend of hers named Joel.
The next day, Rose finds one of her patients with the same creepy smile that Laura had on her face. He begins to scream at Rose that she's going to die soon, but when she calls for help, he's found to be sleeping. Rose is given some time off to recuperate but soon Rose starts to see vague images in the darkness and strangers in the distance looking at her. Random people as well as those she knows begin to smile at her, and as her hallucinations continue, those in her life become concerned and afraid of her. Looking more closely at the details surrounding Laura and suicide she witnessed, and with some help from Joel, Laura learns that there is a pattern of suicides with a single witness going back for a few months.
The pattern seems hopeless and that her time is running out but a glimmer of hope arises when she learns that one person survived the curse by killing someone with a witness present; the witness then continued with the curse. After contemplating this option, Rose realizes that she can just face the evil alone, and if she died alone, the curse might be broken. Returning to her childhood home, Rose has a final confrontation with the evil entity, as well as her own personal demons.
"Smile" is the natural evolution of horror movies like "Ringu" and "It Follows", where the lead character becomes cursed and the only way to survive is to pass it along on to a new victim. In "Ringu", the video must be shown to someone within seven days, and "It Follows" is about finding a new sexual partner. "Smile" is about violent death and the unfortunate soul who watches it. "Smile 2" has just been released with great reviews, so I can't wait to see how this mythos continues.
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