The title of the movie Smile is ironic in every way. It is a 2022 psychological supernatural horror flick that Parker Finn—a filmmaker with very few works, such as the short film “The Hidebehind”—wrote and directed.
“Smile” is the second installment overall and the first-ever feature film in the movie’s franchise. It both takes the cue and is the sequel to “Laura Hasn’t Slept,” another short film by Finn.
The story starts with a therapist, Dr. Rose Cotter, who bears witness to the out-of-this-world suicide of a patient, leaving so many questions. This therapist then goes through increasingly unsettling and daunting experiences, which lead her to believe she’s experiencing something supernatural. Could she have a mental condition?
“Smile” has Sosie Bacon, Kyle Gallner, Jessie T. Usher, and Caitlin Stasey. Stasey reprises her role from “Laura Hasn’t Slept.”
If you are still unsure about watching this movie, you might want to take a look at its oh-so-disturbing ending. Here’s the discussion from us here on PVP Live.
What Happened In The Ending?
At the end of “Smile,” Cotter faces her trauma in her family’s home, where she comes face-to-face with the Smile demon haunting her for so long. But Smile reveals itself as invincible, forcing the therapist to incite harm upon herself in front of her ex-boyfriend, Joel. “Smile” ends with Joel seeing Cotter kill herself, then the curse passes on to him.
The Ending Explained
After finding out that the curse has killed everybody it has inflicted damage on, Cotter (portrayed by Bacon) and her ex, Joel (played by Gallner), visit that one person who can break the disturbing cycle.
Now, Robert Talley (played by Morgan) gets imprisoned for murdering a stranger, transferring the curse to another person who witnessed the incident. It kind of reminds you of the events in “The Ring,” right?
The therapist doesn’t want to murder somebody else just to save herself, even if viewers can get the implication she could kill her patients in front of her boss. This appears as one of the hallucinations, leading to the “real” climax of “Smile.”
She then proceeds to revisit her childhood residence, where you will see that her mother dies by suicide. Then, cut to the flashback, which reveals how the therapist could have saved her mom after she discovers she has overdosed. Yet, she simply ran away instead of calling an ambulance emergency.
By this time, it is clear that guilt is the cause of the Smile entity engulfing her being. She then fights against a physical representation of her inner demons as a twisted and deformed version of her mom, urging her to set the house on fire and escape as it burns down. In a sudden twist of events, the viewers believe she has broken the chain.
Has she?
Well, unfortunately, it’s just your typical “Inception” moment. The therapist then finds herself reuniting with Joel at his apartment but eventually realizes she’s still inside her family home! So, Joel makes her way to the residence, but the entity wants her to kill herself before Joel so he will be the next to carry the curse.
Forward to the confrontation with the Smile entity, it attacks Rose and reveals its rows and rows of toothy grins. It’s like Dream revealing his face. The Smile demon then forces itself inside Rose’s mouth when Joel arrives, breaking in. However…
… he sees Rose pouring gasoline all over herself and lighting a match. What happens after is a zoomed-in shot of Smile into Joel’s eye as he watches her burn herself to death. The next victim: it’s Joel.
This movie is magnified with irony, right? Smile but evil, and a therapist turned chaotic. That’s the dark twist in “Smile.”
