Fantastic Fest review: 'Smile'? Polite smirk will do

Lately, I've been served a lot of mental health advice videos on TikTok. I've been going to therapy for a while; sometimes, such videos do feel a little like do-it-yourself surgery. An admirable pursuit of awareness, but also amateur in a "You're just saying words you heard, aren't you?" way.

I thought of those TikToks several times watching horror movie "Smile." It is a suitably creepy slice of the supernatural that, at times, also feels like the kind of ad BetterHelp might run on a podcast hosted by the devil.

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"Smile," written and directed by Parker Finn, kicked off the 2022 edition of Fantastic Fest on Sept. 22 at Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar. The movie is in theaters on Sept. 30.

The Fantastic Fest screening also happened to be the film's world premiere. Finn and star Sosie Bacon introduced their demented labor of love. Bacon's famous parents, Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, walked across the red carpet to the theater, but not before Sedgwick lingered in the hall of the Drafthouse to snap a phone photo of the posters for the film, calling herself a "proud mom."

"Smile" concerns Dr. Rose Cotter, a mental health clinician with a dark childhood and a penchant for overwork. A disturbed student (Caitlin Stasey, phenomenal in a brief role) comes into Rose's ward one day, making outrageous claims that something sinister — and invisible to others — has been hunting her down ever since she saw her professor kill himself right before her eyes. Chillingly, the presence appears as friends and family, taunting its victims with an unnatural, unmoving smile.

Rose exhibits a healthy professional skepticism, until that entity appears to take over the young woman's body and force her mouth into a rictus grin, and the rest of her into a bloody end. Unfortunately, it appears this kind of torment is contagious, as a now-haunted Rose soon finds out through many an upturned mouth around her.

Now, if you love yourself some deeply sick horror flicks, you'll easily follow the instructions of a title like "Smile." Rose's long spiral into toothy madness finds genuinely creative and disturbing moments along the way. The grinning apparitions do their demonic work so well, you might even cheer whenever one shows up. After one early scene, you'll never feel safe when your home security alarm goes off again.

It's actually a little frustrating how good some of Finn's horror instincts are, because of how conventional things feel at times. Visually, we've got that frustrating cyan sheen over much of the proceedings. Most of the characters are straight out of the stock bin, from a cardboard cop (Kyle Gallner) to even our heroine Rose, a generic fancy white lady with a turtleneck of terror and many wine glasses.

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There's a much weirder, more effed-up version of "Smile" in the multiverse, though, and it pokes through. After a long simmer — the scares fall away so much at times that it honestly feels like this is a very moderate demon who's quite respectful of its victims' personal space — the third act goes big-time bananas. The heck-yeah climax of "Smile" opens its chompers to reveal a gaping maw of CGI lunacy, including maybe the best possession scene in scary cinema history. You can tell Bacon is having a ball, rending that metaphorical turtleneck with looks of abject terror.

Metaphors, though, are where "Smile" gets in trouble. This is a trauma story, you see, and the script spells it out in skywriting. Explorations of mental health are standards of horror, and Finn's film makes some elegant moves early on. A scene of Rose at her makeup mirror putting on a smile of her own to pretend like she's not being chased by an ancient evil is particularly effective.

Eventually, though, "Smile" just starts swinging a club in the air, like with a tired thread about hereditary mental illness. And it doesn't really count as a theme anymore if a character says, verbatim, "It needs trauma to spread," no?

Points where due, though. Never seen a movie combine cognitive behavioral therapy and exorcism before.

If you see 'Smile'

Grade: C+

Starring: Sosie Bacon, Kyle Gallner, Jessie Usher, Kal Penn

Director: Parker Finn

Rated: R

Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes

Watch: In theaters Sept. 30

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Fantastic Fest review: 'Smile' world premiere in Austin