All Smiles for “Smile” Release

No one is frowning over at Paramount Pictures. The studio is sure to be celebrating the box office-winning debut of its original horror release, “Smile.” The film, written and directed by Parker Finn, earned a $22 million domestic opening and an exciting $36.5 million worldwide.

Propelled by strong social media promotion and out-of-the-box marketing tactics, the horror film will likely continue its strong standing at the U.S. box offices thanks to positive word of mouth. The movie currently has an 81 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

The film follows Dr. Rose Cotter, a young psychiatrist working at a New Jersey trauma center. She’s passionate about her work and truly cares for her patients. But after a new patient says she’s haunted by smiles and then gruesomely commits suicide right in front of her, Rose starts experiencing unexplainable and frightening occurrences in her own life. Realizing it’s a curse that drives a person to commit suicide in front of a witness who then becomes its next victim within a week, Rose must finally confront her past trauma to escape her terrifying new reality.

Leading the pack of new horror films this Halloween season, “Smile” is especially terrifying for its multitude of effective jump scares peppered throughout its 115-minute run time. But the film is also much more, delivering interesting ideas about the horrors of trauma. Nerdist wrote in its review: “If you think the movie is nothing but a series of people with scary, evil grins, you’re very wrong. It’s much more clever, much more frightening, and ultimately more uncannily disturbing than even those upsetting trailer images would have you believe.”

The R-rated movie stars Sosie Bacon, Jessie Usher, Kyle Gallner, Robin Weigert, Caitlin Stasey and Kal Penn.

“Smile” is playing in theaters now and will be available for licensing from Swank soon.