Smile was Good...But it Could Be Better
Hey everyone! So, I have been bored at home, so I thought, why not check out the movies that I have been putting off for some time? So, since I have access to Amazon Prime, I watched the 2022 horror movie Smile.Â
Smile was interesting, in that it was really great, and I did it a disservice by watching it at home and not in the theater when it came out, but I thought it had some issues storywise. I enjoyed the visuals and the cinematography is fantastic, but I feel the studio shot itself in the foot with the way they created the trailer. The advertisements for the movie were masterful, but the trailer did the film a disservice, thinking it was just another mediocre horror film that I do not need to watch. Ultimately though, it was a good, enjoyable watch, but it is heavy on its themes of guilt and trauma which may be too much for some viewers.Â
I loved the performances, especially Sosie Bacon as Rose, a therapist, who has the perfect balance of caring before shit hits the fan to a contained craziness that slowly gets bigger throughout the film. I also need to shout out Caitlin Stasey who, although she has a small role in the film, makes an impactful mark on the audience.
(Credit: Geek Girl Authority)
When it comes to horror films, I really enjoy it when it has fun along with the horror and gore, but this film is NOT FUN. Before moving on, I am going to drop both a CONTENT and SPOILER warning, as this film depicts heavy topics, such as suicide, depression, an animal death, and mental health issues.Â
Established in my first movie review post, I rate things on a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being the absolute best, and 1 being the absolute worst. I donât do 1 to 5 because I am afraid I will do some dumb rating like 3.3 out of 5. So, for consistency, I will only use whole numbers to rate things.Â
For me, Smile is a 7 out of 10. While the film may be a bit too long and the story is a bit predictable, Smile is a surprisingly great film, with standout performances from different actors, the outstanding cinematography that catches the audiencesâ eye, and the harrowing scares and scenes that stick with you long after the film is over. However, I believe that the ending of the film conflicts with the film as a whole, and that maybe the film would have benefitted from cutting out the ending and choosing to end at another spot. This is the end of my review, which means that I am now moving on to the spoiler summary part of my post. If this is where you are leaving us, thank you for taking the time to read my post! If you enjoyed reading it, share it with a friend who may also like it as well. Comments are always welcome, but keep it nice. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and shouldnât be attacked because of them. If you want to hear audio versions of these articles, you can find them on my YouTube channel âScreen and Joystickâ. Thank you for reading! See you in the next post!
SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!Â
So, we start the film on a woman lying down in bed, clearly dead from an overdose. We pan around the room, with pills and trash scattered all over the floor and a laundry basket filled to the brim, showing that the chores are still unfinished. We continue to pan to these family photos, where we see a mother (who is the woman on the bed), a father, and two daughters. The camera continues to pan to the door, where we see the youngest of the two daughters standing there, before it cuts to Rose in the present, waking up from a nightmare, played by Sosie Bacon.
If her name sounds familiar to you, Sosie Bacon is the daughter of Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick. I personally first saw her on the Netflix Original 13 Reasons Why, where she played Skye Miller, a love interest for Clay, but she exited the show on its second season. I really loved Baconâs performance here, having only seen her play a grungy teen before.
Roseâs first patient in the movie is a man named Carl, who is muttering to himself about people dying. The nurse complains that he hasnât gotten him to speak, so Rose sits next to him and tries to get him to talk to her. Carl tells her that heâs dying and that everyone is going to die, but Rose explains that he is just having another manic episode. This is when one of the themes start to play out. See, here Carl is explaining to his therapist, Rose, that he senses something bad around him, but she doesnât seem to believe him, since she just chops it all up to being another episode that he is experiencing. The idea of the people you trust not listening to you is one of the biggest reasons why people do not look for help in the first place when it comes to their mental health issues because they will be seen as crazy.Â
Her boss, Morgan played by Kal Penn, chastises Rose for allowing another patient to stay even if she has no insurance, but Rose argues back that they, along with the board, should be more concerned about helping people, not the money. He is also concerned with Rose overworking herself. She is about to leave work, at the recommendation of her boss, when her phone rings, alerting her about a new patient that was just brought in, a woman named Laura. She is wheeled in on a stretcher, where she is seen struggling against the restraints outside the hospital. The nurse hands Rose a file on Laura, who is considered to be an urgent case. Laura was there at the hospital last week, after she witnessed her professor bludgeon himself to death right in front of her, Laura being the only witness. Rose meets Laura face to face, and we see she is the woman on the posters, played by Caitlin Stasey, who is reprising her role from a previous short film Laura Hasnât Slept.
Laura is explaining to Rose the torment she is experiencing, explaining that this âthingâ has taken control of her life and her mind. It also said that she was dying today, and she panics as she is talking to Rose. Again, however, Rose is trying to âtherapist talkâ the situation, prompting Laura to go into hysterics, since Rose clearly doesnât believe her. She claims that she is not crazy, and that she saw her Grandpa die in front of her, similar to what Rose experienced with her mother in the opening scene. Laura also shares that the entity smiles at her, and not a friendly smile, but a sinister evil looking smile. It all comes to a head when Laura sees something attacking her, where she falls off her chair and breaks a pot. Rose doesnât see anything, however, only seeing Laura crawling on the floor, and rushes to a phone to call for personnel. While she is calling for them, Lauraâs screams end after she seemingly chokes on the floor, and she disappears while Rose is on the phone, and looks to where Laura was last.Â
She appears behind Rose, the evil grin she explained to Rose earlier about is on her face. In Lauraâs hand is a piece of pottery, and as the music swells and becomes more sinister, she proceeds to stab her cheek and bring the weapon down around her neck, collapsing on the floor, still smiling. It then cuts to the opening credits, which I could not enjoy since it was strobing and flashing. I have a history of epileptic seizures and although I have not had seizures in years, I am still not used to flashes, but I do understand the uniqueness of this choice. The music is amazing in this film, adding to the tension and creating this sort of tension that can sometimes be let down by horror movies that people thought that Smile was going to become.
Rose is then interrogated by two police detectives, asking about what they knew about Laura prior to this visit. Detective Buckley, the one on her left, does most of the questioning, and is played by Perry Strong, while Joel, the other detective, is played by Kyle Gallner, and is interestingly not as talkative as his colleague. They ask Rose questions about what Laura might have been like from the position of an expert, but also using inappropriate lingo, such as saying Laura was a âhead caseâ and that she âsounds fucking crazyâ. It then sharply cuts to an image of Lauraâs body under some sheets, and we can see her wound on her neck is in the form of a smile, as the blood seeped onto the sheets. We cut to Rose going home after her questioning, a drone shot that follows her car and makes the world seem upside down for a second before cutting to the front of her house. Before we move on, I just want to shout out cinematographer Charlie Sarroff and editor Elliot Greenberg. They made the movie special for me.
She walks in the door and is welcomed home by her cat, Mustache. She is trying to relax from this awful day at work by taking a shower and opening up a bottle of wine. She drinks the whole glass and is staring off into space when she senses something, The camera pans over to across from her, where we see Laura smiling at her. Laura seems to be in some sort of mirror and Rose continues staring at her right as her fiance comes home. Her fiance is Trevor, played by Jessie T. Usher. Usher is well known for his role in The Boys TV show, playing Reggie Franklin or A-Town. Rose drops her wine glass when she hears Trevor and looks back towards where Laura was, only to see that it was a reflection off of their cabinets. Rose shares with him what happened to her at work, which explains her jumpy behavior. They embrace as she continues to share. Trevor reveals that they have dinner plans tonight, saying they can just bail on them, but Rose declines, saying Holly has already hired a sitter. Trevor goes to clean up the glass, and Rose stares off as it cuts to them at dinner with Holly and her husband. Holly is Roseâs sister, played by Gillian Zinser of 90210 fame and her husband is played by Nick Arapoglou. To be honest here, I do not like the husband. I just found him really annoying.
They are talking about their son, which Rose is zoning out of the conversation, until Holly asks if she is coming on Saturday to the boyâs birthday. Rose said she cannot since she has to work, which causes Holly to explain what she should be doing instead of working at the âgross hospitalâ. Greg begins to annoy me by saying that there are plenty of âcraziesâ that will pay Rose for her time. Greg even says why become this kind of doctor if you canât become extremely rich, but Trevor defends Rose, saying she would work in this field for free. It oddly cuts to this weird conversation with Rose and Hollyâs family home. Holly wants to sell it, but Rose is not on board. Again, Greg annoyingly butts in with his two cents, and Rose explodes, telling them to âshut the fuck upâ. Honestly, everytime Greg opens his mouth, I get angrier. They go home and Mustache greets them both at the door. Trevor arms the security system and follows Rose into the kitchen, who is giving Mustache his food in gross closeups of the wet food. He hugs her from behind, checking on her before she feeds Mustache.
It is the next day, and she goes back into work. She is making herself some coffee, and as a nurse tells her good morning, she awkwardly says morning back. She makes her way to the front desk and explains to the the Nurse running the front that she learned that the report of Lauraâs other incident came in and asked for it to be forwarded to her and she asks about another patient she needs to see, but that one pulled her hair and ate it overnight, she is having her stomach pumped. Just then, one of the detectives from before, Joel, appears behind Rose and talks to her for a bit. It is revealed that they dated in the past and he seems to still harbor some caring feelings for her. Rose walks away after telling him he does not need to check up on her, and the Nurse explains that Rose is engaged, but that she was single, which was the only laugh I got throughout the entire film. Rose is looking at the Witness Statement Sheet from Lauraâs case, which was about her Professorâs suicide. Rose reads the report, highlighting everything we knew before. Rose then takes a call from Holly, who apologizes for how she acted yesterday, where Rose apologizes. Rose looks out her window and sees a figure looking up at her, presumingly smiling. Holly explains that Rose could at least get her nephew a model train, along with the fact that Rose sounded weird to her.Â
Rose is walking down the pink halls of the hospital when she passes Carlâs room, and he is sitting upright and smiling at her. She steps back and into his room, Carl having an eerie smile. Rose asks how he is, but still continues to have that eerie smile. Rose walks in and starts snapping in Carlâs face, trying to break him out of this trance that he seems to be in. She calls his name a few more times as well. Carl then begins to repeat louder than yesterday the mantra of everyone dying, but it scares Rose when he starts saying âYouâre going to dieâ over and over again while staring right at Rose. She then calls for help from the nurses, who rush into his room and restrain him, but it is revealed that he was just lying down in his room, meaning that Rose hallucinated all of what just happened, and we start to see that she wonât be reliable anymore when it comes to her narration of events.
It cuts to Morgan, who stares at her with concern and disappointment. Rose shares what had happened, but Morgan does not believe her, saying he has never exhibited that kind of behavior she is accusing him of. Morgan believes that Rose may have overreacted thanks to the events of the previous day and decides that taking a leave of absence will be better in this case for Rose, since she has been working 80 hour weeks for months.Â
As Rose leaves the hospital, she's afraid, her breathing is heavy, and she closes the door to her car quickly to take a deep breath. We cut to another drone shot of the city upside down as we pan down to her car again, which is stuck in traffic, the music, again, giving off a wary vibe. She then goes to pick her nephew up a train toy for his birthday. Director Finn decides not to have the dialogue heard in the train store, opting to instead have just the music, which I believe gives it a more interesting, and deeply sinister feel, thanks to the melancholic tone of the chosen music.Â
Rose returns home and indulges in the same wine she did the night before, she also grabs some wrapping paper to wrap the gift in. She goes to grab herself another glass, finishes it, and drops the glass again in the same spot, thanks to a scare from their security system. The system blares through the house as Rose checks whatâs wrong. She then manages to shut the alarm off after closing the front door. She gets scared again when the phone rings. She picks up the phone and it is from the security system company called, First Line Security, asking for her name and passcode. She gives it to them to confirm her identity, as the woman on the other line seems genuine at first, but slowly becomes scarier with her questions. Soon, it is clear that the person on the line may not be real, as she tells Rose to âlook behind youâ. Rose puts the phone down and slowly turns around. She then realizes she wasnât on the phone at all, instead in another hallucination, and the actual phone call pulled her out of it. She answers the phone again, and with it being the real First Line Security lady, officers arrive at her home.
They searched the house and could not find anything. Rose asks about the back door, and I bring this up because this is the first instance of someone not really listening to Rose, since the cop just dismisses it and explains that maybe she didnât close it, but weâll never know if it was closed or not, thanks to Roseâ unreliable narration. Trevor soon shows up, after having to stay late at work, He then checks up on her as she makes Mustache his food. It is revealed that the alarm isnât normally set that early, and that they usually set it after Trevor comes home, but Rose admits she doesnât even remember setting the alarm. She calls for Mustache, but he is nowhere to be found, she hits his food bowl with a fork to find him. As Trevor and Rose talk, you can see there is some tension there. She goes outside to look for Mustache, holding his food and shaking it to get him to come home.Â
We cut back to Roseâs mom in bed after the overdose happened, with her mom gasping, scaring Rose awake. She then, stupidly in my opinion, starts listening to an audio version of the session she had with Laura. I believe this is a stupid decision because she is already facing a lot of repercussions thanks to what happened that day, and she is choosing to relive it through audio. I feel like this was just another way to try and scare the audience, which is fine, I guess, it just doesnât sit right with me. Then again, I can also see the importance of this scene as Rose finally listens to Laura and what she has to say, although it is too late. Rose is listening to the audio with headphones, when she begins to hear whispering in the audio after she calls out for Laura. The whisper was saying âRoseâ, but when Rose increases the volume, she doesnât hear it, instead Laura, who looks decayed, screams her name into her ear, prompting Rose to fall out of her chair onto the ground. She scurries on the floor, terrified about what she just saw and grabs a knife to defend herself. Trevor wakes up and rushes to check on her, only to see Rose up against the wall armed with a knife. He panics and asks her to drop the knife, but the scene ends before she does so.
We cut to the next day, a woman coming into a building. This is Roseâs psychiatrist Dr. Madeline Northcott played by Robin Weigert. Madeline opens her door and is about to go in, when Rose reveals herself sitting on a nearby staircase. Madeline is surprised to see Rose, and welcomes her in. Rose then explains what happened with Laura, and we learn that Rose blames herself for her momâs death. Rose actually comes to see Madeline to get some medication, but Madeline declines it, stating she wants to consult her again in a week. Rose also explains what is happening with her, Rose then heads home and prepares to go to her nephewâs party, where she puts on some makeup and she smiles to herself in the mirror, panicking a bit about what happened.
We cut to the party, where Rose is carrying the wrapped gift and Holly is excited to see her. We cut to everyone singing happy birthday, but in the middle of the song, it just gets stuck on birthday, everyone holding that note a little too long, making a joyful song sound creepy. It finishes with us unable to hear it, opting for a more sinister song. It then cuts to Jackson, Roseâs nephew, opening his gifts. Jackson then grabs Roseâs gift off the table and he excitedly opens the wrapping paper and the box. He pulls away the tissue paper, but instead of excitement, his eyes fill with horror. He then pulls out Mustache, dead and bloodied. Everyone at the party panics, and Rose, horrified, goes to Jackson and takes the dead cat away. Everyone at the party looks at Rose, scared as to why she would do this, her sister and brother in law especially upset. Rose continues to cry, not understanding what is going on. Rose is trying to defend herself, saying sheâll never do this, as the camera pans to the other patrons of the party, who look at her like she is crazy. She then turns to a woman sitting in a chair, giving her the exact same smile Laura had before she died. Rose locks eye contact with the woman before shouting at the being to leave her alone, scaring everyone at the party some more. She then cries for anyone to see the person, calling out Holly by name, before the woman appears in front of her and scares her, knocking her backwards through the glass coffee table. Rose screams out in horror as she sees her wrists and forearms have been bloodied thanks to her falling onto the table.
We cut to Rose in the hospital, who looks like she is just done with everything. We see a poster on the wall that is a Pain Assessment Tool, which shows that a very happy face is no pain, but a very sad face is the worst pain possible. Obviously, this is about physical pain, not really emotional or psychological pain. Morgan learns that Rose is in the hospital and comes to check on her. By her body language, she is clearly not in the mood to talk to Morgan. She sees Trevor has arrived, with Holly out there already. Holly explains to him what happened as Morgan explains that Rose needs to talk to someone. Rose is too preoccupied with watching Trevor and Holly talk outside to answer Morgan, since Holly is frustrated with Roseâs behavior. We focus on Roseâs face for a second, before cutting to the zero pain tolerance face. We do not see her answer Morgan, instead we cut to Rose and Trevor arriving home in his car.
As they try to get out of the car, you can feel the tension between them, being able to cut through it with a knife. Rose explains to Trevor what is going on, with the monster threatening her. Trevor doesnât believe her, being the second person that doesnât listen to her. He begins to walk away and Rose is accusing him of not listening to her, to which he responds with how he should respond to what she is saying right now. Honestly, I can see why Trevor is reacting this way. If my partner were to say that they were being pursued by something they couldnât see, it could be a bit overwhelming.
Trevor then comes to the conclusion that Rose may have inherited mental illness from her mom, saying it was genetic. I donât agree with him on what he says afterwards, where he seems more concerned about keeping his image intact rather than making sure the love of his life is okay. They fight a bit more before Trevor goes back into the house, leaving Rose outside. It cuts to her inside her bathroom, looking at her face as she is losing sleep. Her wrists are bandaged up and she stares into the mirror and cries. Trevor is asleep on the couch while Rose takes the bedroom, where she continues to read the Witness Report from before. She learns the name of the professor that killed himself in front of Laura: Gabriel Munoz. She then hears her name echoed from the darkness of her bedroom door. The voice beckons her towards it, but Rose opts to stay in bed, ignoring the voice. The voice then becomes the voice of her mother, crying and begging for help.
The scene cuts to the next day, where Rose is crossing the street in front of a car, who calls her âcrazyâ. She then goes to the house of the Professorâs widow Victoria Munoz, played by Judy Reyes. She explains that Gabriel's behavior changed before it took a nosedive. She recounts how he went into a downward spiral, and was told by the police that her husband was gone. She then shows Rose some drawings he did, depicting what he was seeing, many showing a smile or a monstrous appearance. Victoria mentions that the being was trying to get inside him. She also reveals that Gabriel's brother died twenty years ago, and that he never got over his death. Rose asks when his behavior changed and Victoria told her it was after the conference he went to, where a woman killed herself in front of him. When Rose pushes Victoria and explains that her late husband is not crazy, Victoria stops answering questions and kicks her out.Â
Rose quickly leaves and decides to go to Joelâs apartment. She lets herself in and asks for a favor from him. She wanted to find out more about Gabriel and to see if he is in any other police cases. He helps her, looking up Gabriel in the system, and learns that the woman who killed herself in front of Gabriel was named Angela Powell. Rose then asks for him to look into her case and they find a security camera video of a man killing himself with a pair of garden shears right in front of Angela. They rewind the video and see the man smiling in the video.Â
The film transitions to Rose driving back home, her now having the evidence from Joel. She rushes into the house to show Trevor, but is then ambushed at home by him and Madeline, her therapist from earlier. Rose feels betrayed by Trevor since he called Madeline instead of helping Rose with her problems himself. Rose angrily storms out, slamming the door. This is the last we see of Trevor for the rest of the movie.Â
She then starts ringing a doorbell of another house, where we see Greg (ugh) open the door. She insists on talking to Holly, but Greg being an imposing idiot, thinks it is his decision whether or not Holly can talk to Rose. Holly pushes past him and hears her sister out. Rose tries to explain to Rose that she is cursed, but Holly clearly is not believing her. Rose tries to show her the evidence, but Holly, justifiable, freaks out after seeing dead bodies in those photos. Rose then tells her that she is not hearing her, and Holly breaks down, remembering their mom, and how she had a breakdown before she overdosed. Rose angrily asks how Holly would know that if she was never around, but Holly retaliates by saying that she got the worst of their Momâs insanity. Rose angrily yells at Holly, to which Holly just walks back into the house, banning Rose from her house for traumatizing Jackson. Rose, regretting what she said, walks back to her car and tries to calm down, but we see Holly walk towards her car. Holly stops and knocks on her car, but it is one of the jump scares, as Hollyâs head swings down to the window. Rose screams and swears in response, traumatizing Jackson some more as he looks at his aunt screaming in her car from the window in the house.
Rose is then enjoying some dinner from a diner after a cry sesh in her car when she receives a call from Joel. He tells her that the pattern goes back further than where they stopped. He found 20 cases involving 19 suicides connecting them all together. One case, Robert Talley, murdered a woman, where the key eye witness to the murder then commits suicide later, resuming the pattern. Joel drives Rose to go and talk to Robert, who is played by Rob Morgan, who I have seen in Stranger Things as Officer Powell and Tuke Barrett in Marvel shows such as Daredevil. Joel shares with Rose as well that the suicide vicitms donât last more than a week after they witnessed the suicide, the least amount being four days after. Robert agrees to speak to Rose alone, so they kick Joel out of the room. He shares what happened with him, and that in order for her to survive, she must kill someone and ensure a witness is there to pass the curse onto, since it needs trauma to spread. Rose, under the guise that her patient has it, spills that she is actually the one that has it, which freaks Robert out and both Rose and Joel leave.
Rose decides not share what Robert told her to Joel, and they drive back in silence. Rose returns home, where she receives a call from Madeline, which she chooses to ignore. Rose continues looking at all of the case files, and nervously bites her nail, which results in her ripping the nail off and bleeding. She contemplates killing someone when her doorbell rings, a panning shot revealing it to be her therapist. Rose, at first, turns away Madeline, but after some convincing, allows her to come in. They sit across from each other on the couch, and Rose shares whatâs been happening. During their talk, the phone rings, and it is revealed to be the real Madeline. The Madeline across from her is revealed to be the being chasing her, smiling at her and telling Rose her time is almost up. The being then starts to physically attack Rose, terrorizing her down the steps, grabbing her face, and roaring at her.Â
Rose is then shown to be in her car, at the hospital, with a knife. She hides the knife in her coat and makes her way inside, bypassing everyone with ease. She makes it to Carlâs room, where he is sitting with his back towards her and muttering to himself. He sense danger and frighteningly scurries into a corner, screaming no. Morgan comes in and sees Rose and Carl in the room. Rose unsheathes the knife and stabs Carl, and as the music gets crazier, she continues to stab Carl as they scream together. Morgan is screaming behind them, but he begins to peel his face, pulling Rose out of her dream. She is still in her car, where Morgan finds her outside. He confronts her and asks why she is there, and he tries to talk to her, but once he sees the knife, he panics. Rose frantically drives away as Morgan tries to talk her out of it. She decides that she needs to be alone, that way she canât pass the curse onto anyone, so she begins driving. Joel tries to talk to her, but Rose doesnât listen to him, opting to keep driving on to her destination and facing the thing alone.
She makes it to her old childhood home, the one Holly and her fought over weirdly in the beginning. It gives off Cabin in the Woods, in my opinion. In the car, Roseâs phone rings again, revealing it to be Joel. She decides to leave it and enter the house. The house looks abandoned, as if after her mom died, they moved. Rose goes through all the rooms, and turns to look at her motherâs bedroom, where she can hear sounds coming from. This can be seen as her facing her trauma of the past. It changes to that day her mom died, and a young Rose opens the door. It shows why she feels guilty about her momâs death, since her mom explained that she made a mistake and that she needs to call for help, but Rose didnât. Adult Rose looks at the room and looks around in sadness before closing it again. She then goes around the house, looking for sources of light, and anyway to keep herself inside and people out. At night, she lights the lantern and walks around.
Rose sits and waits for the being to attack her. She then hears her momâs room open, and walks over there to investigate. She hears her mom sobbing as she approaches the door. She opens it and sees her mom sitting on the bed, sobbing. Rose enters the room and confronts her mom. She shared that her mom was a monster, and that she needed help, but it was a lot of pressure for ten year old her. Her mom begins showing off a creepy smile and Rose closes the door, but is stopped by the monstrous mom, which I wasnât a fan of. The long limbed monster lady thing is just getting old to me. The only thing scary about the monster, in my opinion, is the face, with the creepiest smile I have ever seen on a humanoid thing. Rose is then attacked by the being, having landed on the floor and being choked by it. Rose retaliates by breaking the beingâs arm and using the lantern, smashing it on the monster's head. Rose crawls back as the being catches on fire, screaming and catching the rest of the house on fire. Rose gets out of the house and leaves as it burns, not flinching when the windows burst open. We see Rose, who looks relieved and confident, then drives away, having gotten over her trauma. She then returns to Joelâs apartment, and he invites her in. Rose apologizes for dragging Joel into her mess and explains what she is afraid of. She also explains how Joel made her feel a certain way, and pushed him away as a result of it. She asks if he can stay with her while she sleeps, and he says of course, that he will stay with ehr forever, and this is where the film should have ended.Â
With this, you leave the ending of the film ambiguous, and you do not have the conflicting ending that I am about to explain. The ending is what brings the film down from an 8 or a 9 to a 7. There are many aspects that I did not like, which I will explain here. Joel smiles at her sinisterly, revealing that she did not, in fact, escape. Joel charges at her and she rushes out of the apartment and sees sheâs back at her childhood home, actually running out of the front door. She also sees that Joel actually tracked her down, and she frantically runs back in, trying to protect him. Joel, stupidly, begins hitting the door, trying to break it down. Meanwhile, the monster mom returns, attacking Rose inside the house. The mother peels her face, revealing the monster's true form, which then breaks Roseâs mind. Rose falls to her knees and the monster begins crawling inside of Rose. Once Joel can break the door down, he doesnât see Rose at first, instead he sees the lantern and her jacket. He then hears dripping and finds Rose pouring some sort of fluid on herself. She tosses the can aside and turns to look at Joel, the eerie smile across her face. He watches as she lights the match and then herself on fire. We only see her burn in the reflection of his eyes before it cuts to black. If you want to see the monsters true form, I am choosing not to show it here, you can look it up on Google.
Now, I have so many problems with this being the ending of the film, as it gives the message that people suffering from mental illness can never truly escape the trauma, since Rose thought she had overcome everything, but it was shown to be meaningless in the end, since she took her life anyway. Like I mentioned earlier, I believe ending the film when she reaches Joelâs apartment not only leaves the ending ambiguous, but it shows that you can overcome trauma, as she did with attacking the monster mom and burning her old childhood home. With all of that shackling her to her past, she could never truly move on and have a normal life, like Holly created. In the end, the ending not only conflicts with the filmâs message of overcoming trauma, but undercuts it and leaves a bad taste in my mouth.Â
If you yourself are suffering from mental illness, please reach out to someone. Someone will listen, I promise you. You can even reach out to me and I will be the friend that you need.
With that, it is the end of my explanation and I thank you for reading this far! If you enjoyed reading my stuff, share it with a friend who may also like it as well. Comments are always welcome, but keep it nice. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and shouldnât be attacked because of them. If you want to hear audio versions of these articles, you can find them on my YouTube channel âScreen and Joystickâ. Thank you for reading! See you in the next post!
