SMILE begins with a simple and scary idea: That the most welcoming facial expression can be intimidating and even terrifying. From there it layers effective jump scares and supernatural horror to create a memorable spooky season sensation.
Sosie Bacon stars as Dr. Rose Cotter, whose unsettling experience with one patient stains her career and her personal relationships — and ultimately threatens to define her entire future. Is that experience the result of some condition with a rational explanation, or is there a supernatural aspect to the smiling horror that begins to plague Rose? We're not going to spoil it here!
We did talk to Sosie Bacon and her co-stars Jessie T. Usher and Kule Gallner, and writer/director Parker Finn, to learn more about SMILE.
Sosie Bacon explained that Rose's very profession leads to some potentially scary stuff. "A lot of people in health care, especially the mental health care profession," she said, "can be understanding of traumas because they've probably experienced some of it themselves. And an emergency psych ward is literally like the ER of psych, which, if you've ever spent the night in the ER with a wound, it's already gnarly. Then imagine it with psych… it's a very intense place."
Creator Parker Finn expanded SMILE from his short film "Laura Hasn't Slept," and said that he was "very interested in investigating the stuff that we all walk around with in our heads every day. You know, the trauma and guilt and fears and anxieties and how we try to mask that from the world. At the same time, I really wanted to explore what it might feel like to have your mind turning against you. If I could take all of that and put it through the lens of like a really nightmarish roller coaster — that was the intent."
Watch our full video interview with the cast and director of SMILE below:
SMILE opens on September 30.
All images courtesy of Paramount Pictures.