The Trauma of Contagion in America: Analyzing Parker Finn’s “Smile”
Horror as Social Commentary
Horror movies have the distinct ability to capture the current anxieties and fears of people a during a distinct time and place. Whether that be the dangers of consumerism in Child’s Play, the over-policing/under protection of Black populations in Candyman, or issues of consent and control in Rosemary’s Baby; horror holds a powerful capacity to capture visceral fear and anxiety unlike any other genre. Reporter and social horror writer Lori Rosene-Gambino (2021) states that “the best social horror films and television represent their times and examine the fears of their generation.” American horror tells us that this country has always been frightening: a place where the most vulnerable populations are subjected to powerful forces that cause both direct and indirect harm. What does Parker Finn’s 2022 film Smile show us about ourselves as a people, both individually and collectively?
Laura Weaver in the film’s beginning scene
Synopsis
Smile is a new psychological horror film that tells the story of Dr. Rose Cotter, a psychologist employed in the psychiatric unit of a New York City hospital. Cotter works with high acuity patients, including the first patient we meet, a woman believed to be suffering from delusions. Her name is Laura Weaver. She promises Rose she is not mentally ill, she’s “a PhD candidate!” A statement that suggests a belief that one’s caliber of intelligence, opportunities, or education comes with the promise of exemption from illness or trauma. Laura begins screaming about an entity that is in the room with she and Rose; a dark power that cloaks itself behind a smile. After Rose calls for help, she turns around to see a grinning Laura before slitting her own throat. Rose makes direct eye contact with Laura while she opens her throat with a broken shard of a broken object. This marks the beginning of the Rose’s following by the smile.
Rose watches in horror as Laura slits her own throat
Rose’s Story
We immediately see the effect witnessing Laura’s death has on Rose. She barely explains what happened to her own fiancé, only that a woman died in front of her at work. Why did she avoid explaining the severity of the scene? It could be poor writing, or it could be Rose trying to normalize a violent interaction, one that echoes back to her own mother’s suicide she witnessed as a child. It is that night that Rose sees someone in the dark with a smile. This is the beginning of a hell specially catered to Rose’s anxieties. Once Rose “catches” the smile entity, she too tries to prove her own wellbeing through her position at work, explaining that she understands delusions and trauma enough to avoid its reach. We soon see she cannot intellectualize her way out of trauma as she deteriorates and grows progressively more unwell.
Rose defines herself through her work in mental health recovery--she uses her work to find meaning in her mother’s suicide. After she begins witnessing the entity, she is put on paid leave. This only furthers her isolation and distances Rose from her sense of self. Rose also feels further distrusted after her psychiatrist refuses to give her a medication Rose knows would help. The first step in recovery from trauma is rebuilding safe, secure attachments. We see Rose’s illness progress the more she is isolated from those she loves and surrounds herself with. The entity that follows her works to push Rose away from those she loves. It takes the forms of people Rose is closest to.
Rose’s patient is usually crying or rocking in fear, but now stares with a blank smile
Trauma and Its Aftermath
As previously mentioned, Smile makes it clear upfront that it is a film about trauma. Rose is treats patients with a variety of mental illnesses, many of whom have a history of trauma or acute post-traumatic stress disorder. Rose’s life has been defined by her mother’s suicide. She admits to her sister at one point that she became a psychologist to understand her mother and to help other people from dying in the same way. This is the foremost trauma that affects those who are followed by the entity. Every character plagued by this “illness” of the smile has witnessed a violent suicide or death of another person. When someone witnesses another’s death they may feel survivor’s guilt and a perceived responsibility for their death. It is also common for those who witness suicide to subsequently be isolated from their social support (Jordan, 2020). Rose experiences this herself after she is followed by the entity. Her fiancé cannot empathize with her pain, nor listen to her experience. Her sister grows frustrated with her delusions and will not allow her in her home.
Covid-19 in America
In recent times Americans have experienced individual trauma, but also collective trauma through the Covid-19 pandemic. Smile hints at other causes of the haunting force: the fear of contagion, the fear of contact, the fear of closeness. This film was released only two years after the wave of Covid-19. Smile’s shows the horror of a people who fail to listen, fail to respond, and lack empathy for those whose experiences they cannot understand. It shows America’s growing fear of contagion, and how that fear caused an already individualistic culture grow further apart. Most of the shots in the film contain one person in them, isolating its character from one another.Covid-19 brought the threat of death and reports of citizens dying rapidly. We as a nation have been mass traumatized by the fear of being infected, the fear of receiving a diagnosis, the fear of causing the infection of another. The film displays whispers of Covid anxiety, until it is full-on screaming. The curse lives through passing from person to person, it is a sickness that understands its host more than they can understand it. At one point Rose visits a man who once had been followed by the entity but survived it through killing another person rather than himself. When he learns that Rose has “it” he screams for her to get away from him. He is propelled away from her through his fear of catching it again, rather than empathizing with the pain and isolation she is suffering through
Conclusion
I cannot say that Smile is a great film, or that it even means to have political undertones, but that does not negate the fact that it does. Many films in the horror genre say the most about current society when they did not even intend to. In fact, Smile first seems surface level. I did not like that it hit us over the head with its main theme of trauma; I believe audiences are intelligent enough to understand that for themselves. It is a film that is far from perfect, but I recommend it for its surface level jump scares AND its themes of trauma, emotional pain, and isolation.
References
Jordan, J. R. (2020). Lessons learned: Forty Years of clinical work with suicide loss survivors. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00766
