Smile, the movie by Parker Finn, is so disturbing but not for the reason you think. Its genre is horror, but it’s so much more than that. It’s a commentary about our society, people masking trauma with a smile. But little do they know eventually, that smile will literally rip your head off. 

I had low hopes for this movie; I don’t get scared by horror. They’re so cliche now. However, this has a creepy girl on it, so it seemed promising. The movie, at first, had me yawning. Interestingly, the main character Rose was a psychiatrist, although she appeared anxious and constantly on edge. So I thought, meh. However, as the film went on, I considered the supernatural element. Maybe this “smile” is some evil spirit, as the main character pointed out. I mean the happiest people are sometimes the most evil. But actually, it wasn’t…it was actually trauma. The creature thing you never see but that manifests into her mother is not an evil spirit but her previous trauma.  Essentially, the movie gave a face and a body to trauma.

So why is this brilliant? As a person who works in behaviour, trauma manifests itself if you’re not careful in things you like or shape shifts into things you love, causes you to hear and see things that are not so. Which is the bottom line of the movie. See, when a person possessed by this thing dies, the person who witnesses it gets the transfer to then have to commit suicide, which now transfers to someone else. So, in other words, trauma is repeating itself over and over. 

So this really isn’t just a horror movie. It is so much more. It really kind of highlights where we are in the world right now, which is basically, this film resonates with trauma transfer. You don’t have to be familial or close to someone to have their baggage become yours. What’s more, is that the manifestation for  Rose is her mother. The complicated relationship she had and basically leaving her mother to die. But take it one step further; when she thinks she was able to kill this thing by setting it on fire, she doesn’t, and what ends up happening is she becomes perplexed. Has that ever happened to you? Trauma has a way of shapeshifting us, manipulating memories and actions to keep us playing into the victim. 

The biggest takeaway is that, in the end, Rose gave in to the trauma. Which ended up taking her life but to the audience, we see the trauma, which is her mother splitting her face, but to the larger world, she “committed suicide.” 

This movie opens up a conversation that I think is so deep. Exploring trauma and how it manipulates a person. The lesson is you can’t run from it; whatever is bothering you manifests into different people that you associate with, and they become triggers. Although some people would not consider suicide, the “transfer “is crucial as it takes our trauma and transfers it to others. And that last part is often missed. It’s not forgotten in families but undoubtedly missed in friend groups. Unfortunately, some people live to transfer their baggage to others.