When Smile First Spread
When Smile was released in late 2022, it was one of the most talked-about horror films of the decade. It was a deeply unsettling story about trauma, a phenomenon marked by an invisible curse, an affliction, and contagion. It wasn’t a remake, a reboot, or a part of a cinematic universe. It was a horror story that was uniquely unrelentingly skin crawling.
The heart of the story was Sosie Bacon, acting as a therapist, Dr. Rose Cotter, who becomes haunted by a grinning figure after witnessing a patient bizarre suicide and becomes a victim of a bizarre curse. The movie was propelled by her emotionally profound fall from a professional calm therapist to shattered victim. This was a breakthrough role for Bacon, who for many years worked consistently in television and low budget features while being somewhat eclipsed by her Hollywood lineage, the daughter of Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick.
Even for a horror movie, the performance was psychologically demanding, and there was unraveling to do, much like a metamorphosis, and the filming of Smile changed her career and her self-concept as an artist.
The Woman Behind the Smile
For Sosie Bacon, the past few years have involved a consolidation of her career with appearances in 13 Reasons Why, Narcos: Mexico, and Mare of Easttown, albeit in a few supporting roles, as a “character actor.” This changed with the movie Smile.
After the release of Smile, her career took a giant leap as the movie’s relentless intensity placed her in the center of the mainstream conversation. She was praised for grounding the supernatural horror so rose’s trauma was portrayed not as hysterical, but as a heartbreaking, heartbreaking performance that helped carry the film beyond its jump scares by infusing empathy and tragedy.
Success inevitably comes with a cost. During interviews after the film’s release, Bacon explained how she found difficulty in breaking free from the character. For weeks she had devoted herself to the preparation of the character, which involved extreme states of isolation, extreme paranoia, and extreme states of panic, sometimes spending hours filming scenes in which she screamed or cried. “It lingers,” she states in one interview. “You try to go home, but you’re still tense. You still feel watched.”
The intense stress placed on the lead actor during the filming of Smile produced one of the many “quiet stories” surrounding the film. For Bacon, who had to take the longest of breaks, the trauma-centered concept of the film seeped into her own life. Focusing on personal life, she had the longest of breaks before signing on for her next film. During this time, she had to place extreme emphasis on coming back to herself and the life around her.
The movie certainly elevated Bacon’s status in Hollywood, despite the fatigue. Hollywood in turn began to reimagine her. Casting directors began to view her as someone who was more than a familiar name and began to see her potential as the leading lady for psychological thrillers.
Parker Finn and the Power of a First Impression
Parker Finn is the young writer-director of Smile, a feature film based on his 2020 short film Laura Hasn’t Slept. Initially, Finn’s project was not intended for a theatrical release. Luckily, the film was screened for audiences, and those test audiences provided exceptional feedback. They were so engaged that they screamed and gasped, even to the point of applause at the film’s conclusion.
Parker Finn’s decision to release the film theatrically Smile leads to Finn’s debut feature film being one of the largest sleeper hits of the year. The film was made on a budget of 17M and grossed over 217M. The first impression Finn made was deeply impactful. The success was largely deserved.
The comparison to James Wan is troubling, particularly to those who have not completed a significant number of feature films. The sequel to Smile is meant to address the topics Finn has publicly kept under wraps.
The Cast Who Carried the Fear
The close-knit bond and familial vibes that Sosie Bacon and the rest of the ensemble cast held were surprising in the case of horror movies. Making a horror movie in his quiet role as a police officer, Gallner portrayed a character who was the ex-boyfriend of Rose. For the bleak emotions in this film, he was the source of warmth. In the midst of madness, his quiet-spirited performances and appeals were the calm of a storm to runaway audience emotions.
For Gallner, who has been in the horror film genre since Jennifer’s Body and A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010), this film was a horror-turned-critically acclaimed movie. Audience and studios were reminded of his ability to horror genre perform while containing subtle emotional appeals. He was praised for his admiration for Bacon as well as admiration for Parker Finn’s work. Finding a high value on a project was one thing, he said, but this blew all expectations.
For Caitlin Stasey, this film represented a new career, genre television. Stasey briefly portrayed the terrified woman whose suicide triggers the entire plot. Her five-minute performance became one of the film’s most unforgettable moments as the horrific smile and tremble in the voice captivated the audience. Stasey, ironically, had starred in Finn’s short, Laura Hasn’t Slept, so this felt as a passing the torch moment. Finn’s short, Laura Hasn’t Slept, invigorated Stasey’s career and led new offers in genre television and thrillers.
Success Impact: The Story Behind ‘Smile’
The phenomenal success of “Smile” changed a lot of lives and Smiles did the same thing for Sosie Bacon. From being a promising star, Ms. Bacon became a ‘wanted’ leading actress. For Parker Finn, the success led to a multi-year deal with Paramount Pictures. Now, he has the creative control and the studio support. After being less active for a number of years, Kyle Gallner was more in demand. Even the supporting cast, including Jessie T. Usher and Rob Morgan, could see and appreciate the difference in opportunity that was now available to them.
The impact of the film shifted more than just careers. Many of the cast and crew had the opportunity to rethink how to appreciate the horror genre. Sosie Bacon spoke on this prior and changed her mind, reflecting that, “Smile” made her see horror as “emotionally alive, not just scary.”
The “camaraderie” that was forged during the shoot did not seem to end after production. The cast joked about how they all had a “therapist” to deal with the consequences of the shoot, and they all did seem to have a similar way of coping. For the crew, the humor and the psych “games” seemed to work during the more tense moments. These have now seemed to provide balance to a film designed to be and feel heavy.Typecast or Transformed?
Some people had concerns that Sosie Bacon might be typecast as “the horror girl” after her role in Smile. Following that performance, she received numerous offers for psychological thrillers, as well as dark indie dramas, but she was prudent in making her decisions. She accepted offers for a wider range of roles, including comedies and projects that focused on the musically oriented, in order to escape being typecast. She appreciated the acknowledgment but ultimately refused to be labeled.
In contrast, Parker Finn intentionally focused on horror. Instead of fleeing the genre, he expanded his vision with the sequel, Smile 2, and demonstrated that his narrative abilities had depth and were not a one-time occurrence.
The film’s unspoken trauma as a haunting curse metaphor resonated with countless people. Actors were able to blur the reel and the real. They performed not only to convey fear, but were in touch with deep, unspoken, human realities of grief and silence.
The Smiles That Stayed
Even after so many passages of time, Smile continues to be remembered—whether it be in memes, conversations revolving around horror, or the career paths it influenced. It was the movie that helped Sosie Bacon, the daughter of Kevin Bacon, become Sosie Bacon in her own right. It was the movie that secured Parker Finn’s position among contemporary horror movie masters. It also provided audiences with an unexpected catharsis: proof that, underneath the genre’s thrill, horror had real emotional weight.
Each smile in the movie concealed a deeper layer of suffering, just as every tale of triumph that followed was built on a foundation of painstaking labor, resilience, and the arduous process of maturation. Although the film ended on a sorrowful note with Rose’s tragic fate, for those who made it, Smile was a new beginning, one that would trail after them in silence, like a grin in the dark.
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