The LA Beat

“Smile” (2022, Paramount Home Video) Burnt-out therapist Sosie (daughter of Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin) Bacon discovers that she is the latest target of a monstrous entity with a diabolical M.O.: it plagues its victims with terrifying hallucinations that drive them to commit public suicide, which then transfers the spirit on to those who witness the death. Writer/director Parker Finn borrows liberally from other recent curse-fueled horror titles, such as “Ringu” and “It Follows,” for his feature-length expansion of his short “Laura Hasn’t Slept”; he is less successful at building a cohesive mythology for his monster than those films, and frontloads the picture with some hamfisted dialogue and effects, but there’s also no denying that he knows how to craft very creepy atmosphere and setpieces (Bacon’s house is enough of a creepshow unto itself). The film’s underlying metaphor – that trauma and mental illness can take on insidious and virus-like properties, affecting everyone around the sufferer – is also delivered in particularly cogent and affecting terms (and almost warrants Finn tackling the subject outside of a horror context). He’s well assisted by Bacon, whose mental dissolve is palpably unnerving, as well the always-excellent Robin Weigert as her supercilious ex-therapist and Caitlin Stasey as the entity’s first victim, whose display of its trademark – a horrible wide grin – is arguably the film’s most alarming visual. Paramount’s Blu-ray includes the “Laura” short along with commentary by Finn, making-of docs on the production and Cristobal Tapia de Veer’s astonishing, nerve-rattling score, and deleted scenes.

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