Parker Finn’s Smile felt like a miracle when it was released in 2022: a well-crafted original horror movie plucked from the obscure hell of direct-to-streaming release and turned into a genuine box-office hit. It’s a clever movie that combines themes of mental health with scares, creating an elevated horror that blends shocking, crowd-pleasing kills, tension and dramatic urgency. Smile is an amalgamation of some of horror’s finest classics, updated for savvy contemporary audiences, and a treat for aficionados of the genre, who can see from a mile away where this premise is going for the protagonist.
With Smile landing on Hulu, there’s never been a better excuse to finally press play and get up to speed on a newly emerging horror franchise that’s shaping up to be the genre’s next major player. That is, if Paramount can ever get its third movie off the ground.
Built from Finn’s 2020 short Laura Hasn’t Slept, Smile quickly introduces Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon), a therapist working the emergency psych ward who’s seen just about every kind of breakdown imaginable. But after a terrified patient insists she’s being stalked by a grinning, shapeshifting presence only she can see — and then kills herself in front of Rose — Rose’s steady clinical world starts to crack. The more she digs into the supposed curse that claimed her patient, the more unstable she seems to the people closest to her, including her well-meaning but dismissive fiancé Trevor (Jessie T. Usher), her fragile sister, and even her therapist. As Rose begins to see that grinning entity in the faces of friends and strangers, the film blurs the line between supernatural horror and psychological collapse, trapping her in a nightmare in which insisting “I’m not crazy” only makes her sound more unhinged.
Smile combines the psychological gaslighting from Leigh Whannell’s 2020 Invisible Man with The Ring’s deadly ticking-clock curse; the gory, inventive deaths of a Final Destination movie; and a shapeshifting being that gives serious Pennywise vibes. Yet beneath all its influences, Smile is crafted as elevated horror addressing how people cope with trauma, whether by passing it along to others, confronting it, or being swallowed whole.
“I think it’s so relatable,” the writer-director told Polygon at Fantastic Fest in 2022, where the film debuted. “Everybody walks around carrying these things inside of themselves that are deeply rooted in them at their core, that are based on their histories and traumas. And I wanted to use that, and also explore what it might be like to have your mind turning against you. For me, that’s one of my greatest fears.”
At its core, the story’s tension comes from the creeping fear of not being able to trust anyone when stress becomes overwhelming — not even yourself. That hook was strong enough to turn a short film into a full-length feature. While a few unrealistic stretches in Smile reveal the limits of that expansion, the result is still a solid horror movie that paved the way for an even sharper must-watch sequel. Smile 2 sets the stage for Smile 3, which Paramount hasn’t officially confirmed, but reportedly had on its 2025 production schedule. In the meantime, check out the 2026 prequel comic Smile: For the Camera, which expands the story and dives deeper into the mythos.