Smile (2022)

Every other scene in Smile ends on a loud jump scare, and by the halfway point you can feel them coming like a sneeze. The idea deserved better: a curse that shows up as a stranger’s grin that never quite stops. Parker Finn has a real eye for the slow creep, like a face waiting in the background of an ordinary room. Then he reaches for the volume knob again. The movie also says its big theme out loud, more than once, in case you missed that the monster is really about trauma. What keeps it alive is Sosie Bacon. After a patient’s death she can’t unsee, Rose starts unraveling, and Bacon plays her as a smart, tired doctor watching her own mind slip. Kyle Gallner’s Joel is the only one who really listens. It made $217.4 million worldwide on a reported $17M. A 6.2 because the dread is real and the shortcuts are cheap. $3,282 says the next time a photographer tells you to give a big smile, you offer a polite little nod instead.

What works: Sosie Bacon gives a committed, frightened performance, and the smiling faces lurking in ordinary scenes are genuinely creepy.

What doesn’t: It leans on loud jump scares instead of trusting its slow dread, and it explains its own metaphor in dialogue.

Who it’s for: Horror fans who like a simple, nasty premise and don’t mind being jolted every few minutes.