Earlier today, I watched the Parker Finn-helmed horror film Smile at AMC theaters.
Needless to say, this movie was intense to watch and had lots of jump scares! But in terms of being frightening enough to keep me up at night, Smile is too high-concept a thriller to scare audiences the way a classic horror flick like The Exorcist would.
Smile is a cautionary tale about how individuals struggling with depression continue to be ostracized in this day and age, and how folks coping with mental illness can be severely misunderstood by other people.
That being said, Smile is also about a mysterious monster who gets inside people, makes them grin like the Joker from Batman and then causes them to kill themselves in the worst way possible! Any unlucky person who witnessed that victim commit suicide ended up being targeted by that monster next.
As mentioned earlier, this concept—while definitely very original—is too fancy a premise to make anyone but young children afraid to go to bed at the end of the day. Smile's invisible, grin-inducing creature is just like Pennywise from the IT movies... In regards to those Stephen King flicks, I don't think that adult moviegoers worried about some interdimensional creature disguising itself as a clown before preying on them once they left the multiplex!
The Exorcist, on the other hand, was simply about a girl who was possessed by a demon (a scenario that freaks me out having been raised as a Catholic)...which is why I've never viewed this film.
So bottom line is, Smile is a great horror flick to watch, but not to be traumatized by once the end credits rolled.
Speaking of the ending (no spoilers here): Depending on how Smile does at the box office this weekend, I really won't be surprised if Paramount Pictures greenlights a sequel...which I'll totally see! Happy First Day of October.
No comments:
Post a Comment