From Paramount Pictures,Smileis an upcomingpsychological horror moviewith a very creepy premise. Written and directed by Parker Finn in his feature film debut, the movieis based on his 2020 short filmLaura Hasn’t Slept, which won the Special Jury Recognition Prize for SXSW’s Midnight Short category. The 11-minute short follows a young woman (Caitlin Stasey) who seeks the help of her therapist (Lew Temple) after experiencing a reoccurring nightmare in which she is visited by a scary man whose appearance changes with every dream.
Smilebuilds on this idea and stars Sosie Bacon as Dr. Rose Cotter, who witnesses a traumatic event involving a patient and begins to experiencefrightening occurrencesshe can’t explain. There is a pattern with Rose’s patients that begins with them seeing something which isn’t there and ends with them dying a week later. In between these states, the patients develop a sinister smile, lending the movie its ominous title. With its release on the horizon, we look at what else to expect fromSmile, including information about the cast and crew.
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The Trailer
Thetrailer forSmiledraws viewers in with its unsettling atmosphere and creepy CGI. It begins with a flashback between Rose and her patient (Caitlin Stasey), where the latter hallucinates someone in the room and, after flashing a scary smile, proceeds to kill herself. Rose is clearly traumatized by the incident and begins searching for an explanation. First listening to recordings from their session, she then launches a full-scale investigation into her patient’s death and the entity that killed her.
From the trailer, it’s apparent that Stasey’s patient isn’t the only victim of the entity. Shortly after her death, Rose notices another patient of hers sporting the same sinister smile and, confronting him, hears him repeatedly yell, “You’re going to die!” Additionally, a man (Kyle Gallner) who seems to be helping Rose with her case tells her, “I’ve found 20 cases involving 19 victims with a direct line linking them all together.” Rose then visits the one victim (Rob Morgan) who survived and learns she doesn’t have long left to live, having seen the entity for herself. The trailer ends with Rose encountering many smilers before viewers witness ahaunting jump scare.
The Cast
Sosie Bacon, who plays the lead role of Dr. Rose Cotter, began her acting career playing 10-year-old Emily in the romance dramaLoverboy, directed by her father,Kevin Bacon. Since then, she has starred in a handful of popular series and movies, includingScream,13 Reasons Why, andNarcos: Mexico. Her recent roles are as Carrie Layden in the critically-acclaimed limited seriesMare of Easttownand Mandy in the comedy-drama seriesAs We See It.
Caitlin Stasey, who plays Rose’s patient who kills herself, is known for playing Francesca Thomas in the children’s seriesTheSleepover Cluband Rachel Kinski in the Australian soapNeighbours. Stasey’s other roles include Kenna in thehistorical drama seriesReign, Julia Law (the “girl”) in the TV movieThe Girl in the Bathtub,and, of course, Laura in theSmiledirector’s short filmLaura Hasn’t Slept. Joining Bacon and Stasey inSmileare actors Kal Penn (House,Designated Survivor), Jessie T. Usher (Independence Day: Resurgence,The Boys), Kyle Gallner (Jennifer’s Body,Scream 5), and Rob Morgan (Stranger Things,Don’t Look Up).
The Crew
Parker Finn wrote, as well as directed,Smile, as he did hisshort filmsThe HidebehindandLaura Hasn’t Slept. His first short,The Hidebehind,was released in 2018 and follows a lone backpacker who gets lost in the woods and comes across the Hidebehind. Based on North American folklore, the Hidebehind is a nocturnal creature that preys upon lumberjacks and others who wander the woods. Finn’s short, inspired by the mythical beast, has a decent rating of 6.8 on IMDb and 3.4/5 on Letterboxd, with praise centring on the film’s symbolism and visual trickery.Laura Hasn’t Sleptshares similar ratings (6.7 and 3.2) but attracted more attention from critics.
Smileis co-produced by Paramount Players — a film production company and division of Paramount Pictures — and Temple Hill Productions. Cinematography comes from Charlie Sarroff (Pink Skies Ahead), with composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer (The Girl with All the Gifts) providingthe score.
The Release Date
Smileis scheduled to be released in theatres on September 30. Fans of thepsychological thriller/ horror genre will be happy to know that a week before its release, Olivia Wilde’sDon’t Worry Darlingwill hit cinemas. Wilde’s second directed movie,Don’t Worry Darling, is set in the 50s and stars Harry Styles and Florence Pugh as a young, married couple living in the utopic town of Victory. Jack (Styles) works at the Victory company, whilst Alice (Pugh) is a housewife who becomes increasingly wary of her husband’s secret project. The trailer forDon’t Worry Darling— which sees Alice’s reality crack before her eyes — has created a lot of buzz for the movie, which looks to be part sexy, part scary.
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