What is the backstory behind the movie Smile?

Plot. At a psychiatric ward, therapist Dr. Rose Cotter meets graduate student Laura Weaver, who explains that she recently witnessed her professor die by suicide. Laura claims she is being terrorized by an invisible entity which appears as various smiling people and has foretold her death.
Takedown request View complete answer on en.wikipedia.org

What's the meaning behind the movie Smile?

The Smile movie explained the metaphor for a person's control over their mind in response to trauma, and the pressure people feel to cover up their struggles with fake happiness. As the creature makes it clear to Rose during the Smile ending, she is a prisoner of her own mind.
Takedown request View complete answer on screenrant.com

Is there a story behind Smile?

Ultimately, the wide grin in "Smile" represents the hallucinations Rose experiences that aren't actually real. But those jarring visions help her discover what's really hurting her behind the facade. In a remarkable turn, going through this horrific journey led to an opportunity to truly heal and grow as a person.
Takedown request View complete answer on slashfilm.com

What was Rose's trauma in Smile?

Ok so the movie Smile is based around a curse/entity that feeds and spreads through trauma. The main character Rose gets the Trauma both from her mother's death when she is young and also seeing her patient who had the Trauma die violently.
Takedown request View complete answer on reddit.com

What is the trauma in the movie Smile?

Trauma in Smile

Trauma is very prevalent in this film. Rose, from the very beginning, is known to have experienced trauma as a child, seeing her mother overdose in front of her. That trauma is laced with guilt as she could have called for help in her mother's dying moments — but chose not to.
Takedown request View complete answer on movieweb.com

SMILE Ending Explained | Full Movie Breakdown, Hidden Details, Easter Eggs And Review

Is smile based on mental illness?

Smile's messy treatment of mental illness and trauma throughout one hour fifty-five minutes seems to be intentional and is bound to leave you feeling uncomfortable. The theme of inheriting mental illness and walking down a path that you have lived dreading all your life is poignant.
Takedown request View complete answer on thehindu.com

What is the creepy thing at the end of smile?

So, the entity uses Rose's body to pour gasoline all over the psychiatrist, lighting a match just as Joel comes through the door. Rose's body is smiling while she burns away, and we can see in Joel's eyes he will be scarred for life by that disturbing suicide.
Takedown request View complete answer on collider.com

Why didn t Rose survive in Smile?

Why Rose Dies In Smile's Ending. Rose dies in Smile's ending because she was only able to overpower the entity once. She had enough fight in her to take on the gangly demonic monstrosity and even appeared to kill it, shattering a lantern over its head.
Takedown request View complete answer on screenrant.com

Does Rose have a mental illness in Smile?

Smile clearly wants the audience to see the connection between Rose's curse and mental illness. Throughout the movie, characters use therapy buzzwords and often suggest that Rose's mental state is a result of her genetics and past trauma.
Takedown request View complete answer on gaudie.co.uk

How did Rose get possessed in Smile?

Rose Cotter, who witnesses one of her patients die by suicide in front of her. The shocking death triggers a domino effect that passes a curse onto Rose, who begins having hallucinations of people with creepy smiles everywhere she looks.
Takedown request View complete answer on variety.com

What is the trigger warning for smile?

Excessive suicide scenes!

CANNOT stress this enough - Massive trigger warning for suicide. There was way too much of it, and not enough warning. Every 15 minutes there was another graphic suicide scene, and/or some scene involving a psychotic break.
Takedown request View complete answer on commonsensemedia.org

Why is there a lollipop at the end of smile?

Finn says the face at 1:48:20 is a “true look at the evil thing that's been hiding behind all the smiles.” They called the entity Lollipop — thus explaining the use of The Chordettes' “Lollipop” at the start of the end credits — and this is what happens at the end of every cycle as the beast physically enters the ...
Takedown request View complete answer on filmschoolrejects.com

Does Rose break the curse in smile?

The ending of Smile improves on horror movies like It Follows, The Ring, and Truth or Dare by taking their trauma metaphors to their logical conclusion. In those movies, curses follow victims around, reappearing whenever the hero calms down or feels safe. However, in Smile, Rose never gets any reprieve from the curse.
Takedown request View complete answer on screenrant.com

Why are there upside down scenes in Smile?

A well-used method throughout the film is the technique of inverting camera angles so that you see the city from an upside-down point of view or from side angles. By inverting the landscapes, you see the world as askew. This puts you into the mindset of Rose.
Takedown request View complete answer on civiewnews.com

What happened to the girl in Smile movie?

Rose dies in Smile's ending because she was only able to overpower the entity once. She had enough fight in her to take on the gangly demonic monstrosity and even appeared to kill it, shattering a lantern over its head.
Takedown request View complete answer on screenrant.com

Why do the people in the movie Smile Smile?

Given the movie's prevalent themes regarding mental health, the smile serves as an allegory for how the most typical way to deal with emotional pain is to smile at the world rather than face any inner demons.
Takedown request View complete answer on screenrant.com

Why didn t Rose help her mom?

She apologizes to Rose for what she had done to herself, but also asks, “Why did you let me die?” In the film's final act, it's revealed that Rose's mom had asked for help in the final moments of her life, pleading with Rose to call the police because “mommy made a mistake.” Rose admits that she didn't take action ...
Takedown request View complete answer on time.com

What happened to Rose's dad in Smile?

What happened to Rose's father? The film's opening sequence pans across a series of portraits of Rose's family, with her mother, father, and her sister Holly all happy together. Then Rose's father disappears from the pictures. It's unclear whether he died or abandoned the family.
Takedown request View complete answer on polygon.com

What happens to Rose's mom in Smile?

The Smile movie explained the entity needs another person to witness her death to carry on its curse, Rose secludes herself in her childhood home. There, the entity takes the form of her mother, revealing that, after overdosing, she asked a then 10-year-old Rose to call for help. Rose declined and her mother died.
Takedown request View complete answer on screenrant.com

What does Rose do at the end of Smile?

The grief monster rips off its skin, revealing its horrible, true form, then snaps open Rose's mouth, crawling inside of her. Fully possessed by the demon, Rose douses herself in gasoline and sets herself on fire — just as the real Joel bursts inside her home and witnesses her death, becoming the next victim.
Takedown request View complete answer on variety.com

Why was the ending of Smile so bad?

The ending of the film is particularly sad since it proves that as soon as Joel agrees to help Rose figure out what's happening, he isn't able to extract himself from her, and he will never break free.
Takedown request View complete answer on gamerant.com

What happened to Rose's sister in Smile?

After Rose calls for help, she sees Laura standing up and smiling. With a shard of a broken vase, Laura kills herself by slitting her throat.
Takedown request View complete answer on smile.fandom.com

How did the Smile curse start?

Rose Cotter, who witnesses one of her patients die by suicide in front of her. The shocking death triggers a domino effect that passes a curse onto Rose, who begins having hallucinations of people with creepy smiles everywhere she looks.
Takedown request View complete answer on variety.com

What did the demon look like in Smile?

She attempts to barricade herself inside the house with the creature to prevent the curse from spreading, only to be confronted by the Smile Entity, who rips off its own face to reveal its true from: a demonic skinless humanoid entity with multiple contorted mouths nested one within the other, all twisted into a ...
Takedown request View complete answer on villains.fandom.com

What kind of demon is in Smile?

It is a sadistic and violent demonic entity that feeds off of the trauma of its victims, tormenting them to sustain itself, but also because it enjoys causing its victims to suffer, until they eventually kill themselves, or until it possesses them and forces them to kill themselves.
Takedown request View complete answer on pure-evil-villains.fandom.com