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Smile
Movie

Smile

2022 • Unknown

Woke Score
2
out of 10

Plot

After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can't explain.

Overall Series Review

Smile is a psychological supernatural horror film centered on Dr. Rose Cotter, a psychiatrist who becomes afflicted by a malevolent entity after witnessing a bizarre, traumatic patient suicide. The movie is a metaphor for the contagious and debilitating nature of unaddressed trauma, manifesting as a curse that passes from victim to victim. The narrative follows Rose’s frantic, week-long spiral as the entity torments her with increasingly disturbing hallucinations and jump scares, isolating her from her skeptical fiancé, sister, and peers. The core conflict is Rose’s desperate attempt to break the cycle, forcing her to confront the past trauma of her mother's suicide, which fuels the entity. The film's strength lies in its oppressive, grim atmosphere and Sosie Bacon's raw lead performance, though the structure borrows heavily from other supernatural curse horror movies like 'It Follows' and 'The Ring.' The focus remains tightly on psychological torment and the demonic, cyclical nature of the curse, with little thematic engagement in broader social or political commentary.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics2/10

The movie’s plot is entirely centered on personal trauma and a supernatural curse, not race, immutable characteristics, or intersectional hierarchy. The cast is diverse—the lead is a white woman, her fiancé is a black man, her ally is a white male detective, and her boss is a South Asian man—but casting is colorblind and does not lecture on privilege or systemic oppression. Character issues are personal, not based on group identity.

Oikophobia1/10

The narrative is contained within a contemporary American setting (hospitals, homes, police station) and critiques the societal stigma against mental illness and the failure of individual family units to offer support. There is no deconstruction or hostility directed at Western civilization, American heritage, or its institutions. The supernatural threat is a generic demon/spirit entity, not a 'Noble Savage' or a culturally superior 'Other.'

Feminism4/10

The lead, Dr. Rose Cotter, is a highly competent professional psychiatrist who is portrayed as a good person driven by altruism. Her professional competence is quickly eroded by the demonic curse and her own psychological breakdown, preventing her from becoming a 'perfect instantly' Mary Sue or Girl Boss. Her fiancé is depicted as largely unsupportive and skeptical of her mental state, and another male figure is criticized for a materialistic worldview, suggesting a subtle emasculating dynamic where the woman is righteous and the men around her are flawed. The theme focuses on career and trauma, not motherhood or family structure, which rates it slightly above a low score.

LGBTQ+1/10

The main relationships are exclusively male-female. The narrative features a traditional family structure (Rose's relationship with her fiancé, sister, and brother-in-law) which the curse works to destabilize, but it does not deconstruct the nuclear family as 'oppressive.' The plot contains no explicit content or lecturing on alternative sexualities, sexual ideology, or gender theory.

Anti-Theism2/10

The core antagonist is a supernatural 'demon' or 'evil spirit' that is vague on its exact origins but operates on a spiritual level, feeding on trauma. The film does not include a plot line where traditional religion, specifically Christianity, is presented as evil or where religious characters are villains. The central conflict is between the protagonist and a malevolent supernatural force, acknowledging a spiritual realm, although the entity's philosophy sometimes leans toward moral relativism or nihilism by stating 'nothing matters.'