ONCE YOU SEE IT, IT’S TOO LATE.

Therapist Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) witnesses a woman kill herself, slitting her throat with an eerie smile on her face; Rose later starts having hallucinations.

The director’s feature debut is an adaptation of a short he made in 2020. A surprise hit, audiences were likely intrigued by the disturbing sign of the curse that befalls Rose – that wide, joyless and manic grin of its victims. Bacon is good as a woman who fights hard to convince family and friends that she hasn’t lost her mind.

The story is reminiscent of predecessors like It Follows (2015); uneven, but it does have gripping moments.

2022-U.S. 115 min. Color. Written and directed by Parker Finn. Cast: Sosie Bacon (Rose Cotter), Jessie T. Usher ((Trevor), Kyle Gallner (Joel), Robin Weigert, Caitlin Stasey, Kal Penn. 

Trivia: Followed by Smile 2 (2024).