The following article contains spoilers for Smile.
Moviegoers are grinning from ear to ear with infectious glee after feasting their eyes on Parker Finn’s psychological horror Smile. Released on Sept. 30, Smile stars Sosie Bacon as Dr. Rose Cotter, a psychiatrist who witnesses a traumatic event that prompts a chain of disturbing supernatural occurrences.
Early on, Dr. Cotter witnesses a patient take their own life, giving rise to some unpleasant memories regarding her own mother’s suicide. From there, she begins to ‘hallucinate’ that several individuals are eerily smiling at her. Each instance where Rose sees the unnerving grin, it becomes increasingly threatening, eventually becoming so aggressive that she fears for her own life. She later learns that a string of deaths stemming from Laura, her deceased patient, all happen to be suicides. While it becomes fairly obvious that the recurring theme is that the curse infects whoever witnesses a traumatic event (which in this case happens to be suicide), there’s another fan theory that gives the disturbing tale an even more sinister undertone.
Not only does Rose suffer from PTSD, one Reddit thread even suggests that she could be the victim of domestic abuse. Throughout Smile, Rose’s fiancé, Trevor, frequently dismisses her wild claims and insists that she seek medical guidance. All the while, Rose appears to disassociate from paranoia and Trevor believes that, like her mother, Rose is spiraling into either manic depression or psychosis.
There are a lot of interesting points made, especially the fact that Trevor doesn’t seem to take much interest in Rose, acts negligently toward her, and seems far too eager to end the relationship when the going gets tough, forcing Rose to retreat back to Joel. There are blatant red flags of domestic abuse waving all over the Smile narrative, which could explain how Rose’s deteriorating mental state could cause her to latch onto Laura’s story and begin projecting her own internalized trauma as a result.
While there isn’t a lot of supporting evidence (yet) besides the above, Parker Finn might feel inclined to speak out on the matter in upcoming interviews. Should he confirm Rose’s dark history, that would shed light on a whole other layer of torment for the ‘smile curse’ to feast upon.
