Dr Rose Cotter works in a hospital emergency psychiatric unit. A graduate student is brought in raving about something that looks like people and smiles at her. The student smiles at Rose and cuts her own throat with a broken vase. From then on Rose sees it too: a patient, her sister’s birthday party, her own therapist. All smiling. Smile grew out of Parker Finn’s short film Laura Hasn’t Slept, and it became the biggest original horror hit of 2022.
What Happens In Rose’s Week
She traces the chain backwards: every victim witnessed the previous one’s death, and died within a week, in front of someone new. A prisoner, played by Rob Morgan, is the only one who survived, because he killed someone else in front of a witness instead. Rose’s fiance thinks she is having a breakdown. Her ex, a police officer played by Kyle Gallner, half-believes her. She goes to the house where her mother died. The ending, in that house, is the entity finally shown.
Why The Marketing Worked
Paramount put smiling actors behind home plate at baseball games on live TV and it went viral. The film made 217 million dollars on 17 million. Sosie Bacon, Kevin Bacon’s daughter, carries it with almost no breaks. Caitlin Stasey’s smile in the opening is the image. The sequel moved the curse into pop music.
Watch Smile On GoMovies
115 minutes in HD. Press play above. Free, no sign-up.
