Smile, a review. A film based on the short film Laura hasn't slept. It has a great creepy vibe but isn't quite as scary as it hopes to be. Still, better than many horror films out of late.

 

Smile, a review.

    I heard all the buzz about Smile when it came out and, like everyone, wondered what all the fuss was about. I'd also heard it was based on a short film called 'Laura hasn't Slept', and I decided to watch that before Smile. 'Laura hasn't Slept' is a creepy short film with a young woman speaking to a psychiatrist, and it soon becomes clear that the psychiatrist isn't what he appears to be. Things quickly spiral after that before something leaps out at Laura, and the film fades to black. The film Smile features Laura at the beginning, coming in to see our protagonist as she believes she is about to be taken by something. An entity that only she can see, as it is in pursuit of her. Rose attempts to understand what is going on, asking her questions while assuring her that this is her mind playing tricks on her. Laura explains that this thing looks like other people, but it appears and looks normal except for the Smile. A smile that has no warmth to it. In fact, it is cold and cruel, mocking Laura as it watches her. As Rose tries to comfort Laura, she begins to freak out, screaming in abject terror, and it appears Rose feels something brush past her. Rushing to the emergency phone, Rose calls for aid, turning about to see Laura with a smile on her face seconds before she uses a piece of a broken vase to cut through her face and neck. This is all in the opening minutes and sets the premise for what will follow.

    This film is primarily a psychological horror. By that, I mean that most of what occurs is in the mind of Rose, that no one else can see the things that are haunting her. She is haunted, and it starts out small, seeing a dead Laura smiling at her from the shadows or in the distance. Also, she zones out at times, unsure of her surroundings and what is occurring around her. The aspect of the film that works best is Rose's spiral into a form of madness, and even though she isn't technically mentally unwell, she appears to be to everyone else. It is a gradual decline, but as the film continues, that decline accelerates. Rose has a partner, Trevor, who appears supportive, but as Rose unravels, that is no longer the case. After the incident with Laura, Rose gives a statement to two detectives, and we learn that the younger detective used to be Rose's partner. It is obvious that Joel is not over her, but he has kept his distance until now. Rose has an older sister, Holly, and I found her instantly unlikeable. I don't know if that was the intention, but she comes across as self-absorbed. As the film progresses, Laura begins to see more things that should be real, and she begins to look into Laura's death and learns that a professor committed suicide in front of Laura a few days prior. It turns out that this is just the first link in a long chain of events. There are multiple suicides, one after the other, with those that witness it going on to kill themselves within a few days of the event. We also learn that Rose has her own psychiatrist and that she has a traumatic past that shaped her life. 

    Eventually, Rose turns to Joel for help, asking him to look into the professor's death. He does so and discovers the pattern, even managing to find footage of one of the suicides. It is a grizzly death, and both note that the man is smiling before he commits the act, which is strange. With Rose becoming more unstable, she seeks out the professor's wife. She learns of what he saw and experienced. After that, we discover someone who managed to break the pattern. Rose goes to see him and discovers that the only way to survive this thing is to pass it on to someone else, to kill someone in front of a witness so that they are traumatised. This thing passes from one person to the next by inflicting trauma. Rose is horrified by this, convinced she can't do such a thing, but we get a little look at what that would be like. I  admit the film does a fantastic job of making you think one thing is happening, and then you realise it is all in Rose's mind. And they do a great job of making her look unstable, and by the film's end, she looks terrible, jittery and worn out.

    The final showdown with the entity is a nice little ride in Rose's mind, the psychiatrist attempting to face her own trauma in the hopes of defeating the thing haunting her. And it appears to work at first, but it is all a hallucination, this thing twisting Rose's perception of reality. And that's what this thing does until it destroys their mind and then consumes them before passing on to someone else by traumatising them. I was a little disappointed that there was nothing Rose could do to save herself beyond murder, but this is what makes this terrifying, as you have no hope of escaping it.

    I give this film a 7 out of 10. It has some great moments, and Rose's portrayal of a woman spiralling into insanity is done brilliantly. Sosie Bacon does a great job of showing Rose's descent, of her fear and despair when faced with this thing. It is worth a watch for any fan of horror films with psychological horror at the fore.

Countdown, a review. This movie is a horror based on an app showing a person's time of death. An interesting premise that falls into the typical tropes of demons and curses. Still, has some good jump scares.

 

Countdown (2019), a review.

    So we have a horror for the modern age, not the first or the last in this genre. It opens up with several college students downloading an app that is supposed to tell you when you'll die. Most get years before their demise, but one young woman has only a few hours. This spook's her, but she seemingly shrugs it off. However, when getting in the car with her drunk boyfriend, the young woman is disturbed enough she wisely gets out. Why are people always so ready to drive whilst drunk in these films? Is it common in America? Anyway, they bicker before he drives off in a huff. At this point, her phone goes off, and the Countdown app states that she has broken the user agreement contract. Still disturbed, she walks on, but we see a figure behind her. Thankfully, they are just getting a lift, and she continues on. The phone goes off again, and more disturbed, she runs for her home, quickly unlocking the door and rushing within. Feeling safer now, she moves to ready herself for bed. Brushing her teeth, she hears something and is pulled upwards out of frame, screaming and sounds of pain loud before she drops down and cracks her head open on the bath, the countdown visible on her phone. The film switches then to the boyfriend, the car had crashed into a tree, and the seat she would have been in is impaled by a thick branch.

    We meet Quinn, a nursing student, as she deals with Evan. Evan is the boyfriend of the young woman, Courtney, who died in the initial opening. He's freaking out because he also downloaded the app, and due to expire in nineteen hours. Quinn is sceptical, seeing it as only a game. Evan tells her of Courtney's death and how she had also downloaded the app, convinced that he is in danger. After returning Ethan to his room, we see her be congratulated on passing her nursing exam. During this celebration, the app is mentioned and downloaded. A colleague gets to live until they would be in their eighties while another their nineties. When Quinn downloads the app, it gives her only two days and a few hours to live. She is a little startled by this but brushes it off initially. We get some backstory on Quinn when she returns home, she has a younger sister, and it seems her mother has passed away. Her father invites her to put flowers on her mother's grave, and she agrees to go with them, leaving quickly after that. The film then moves back to Ethan, and his countdown continues. Shaken by this, he decides to miss his surgery, and the user agreement is broken. At this point, he sees something in the mirror behind him, but it is not there when he turns around. Upon returning his gaze to the mirror, the figure rushes forward and the mirror cracks. Scared now, Ethan runs for the stairs, the lights going out, and he sees Courtney, only it isn't her. Not Courtney rushes Ethan, his phone falls down the stairwell moments before he follows, and the countdown hits zero. Quinn learns of this and is shaken to the point that she decides not to go to her mother's grave, and her user agreement is broken. At this point, Dr Sullivan makes unwanted advances, almost forcing himself on her. Quinn is shaken by this and goes to report him, but he uses his position to call the senior nurse from her. Quinn begins to experience things, seeing Ethan in her room after she begins looking into the app and the countdown going off repeatedly. Things quickly escalate for Quinn as she searches for a way to free herself from this app. She meets Matt after changing her phone, and we learn that the same thing is happening to him.

    The pair exchange their stories, seeking out the priest at the hospital in the vain hope of getting some advice or help. He cannot help them but gives them the details of someone that can. And they meet Father John, who is a strange and unique character. He is certainly not your typical priest. He tells them that such things exist, regaling them with a tale of two brothers and one's death when attempting to circumvent it, of forces that seek to bind them by contracts and then devour them. He says it would help if he could see the source code for the app and see what it actually is. Quinn has the idea to go to the shop where she bought her new phone, as the owner said he could crack it for her. He manages to, and they learn that some of the code is in Latin. Quinn takes a picture of the code, and Derek changes the code making it so that they will no longer die at their original times. Of course, this doesn't stick, and they are soon visited by the entity behind this. Rushing to Quinn's sister, they get to her and head straight for Father John. After seeing the code Father John tells them that it is a curse, that a demon is after them, but he can protect them. He does his best, but things inevitably go wrong, and Matt is lured out to his death. After this, Quinn decides to take things into her own hands, and a confrontation between Dr Sullivan, Quinn, and the entity unfolds. It appears that she succeeds, but at the film's ending, the app loads onto her phone with version 2.0.

    The film is okay, having some decent jumpscares scattered throughout but never maintaining the tension. Which is a shame. The acting, whilst not groundbreaking, is decent enough. Dr Sullivan is suitably sleazy and charming in turn, and Quinn is believable as our lead. The demon is done well, though it doesn't feel quite menacing enough. I would have preferred some more backstory into the app, such as how it came to be etc. And more screen time for Father John wouldn't have hurt, either. I give this film a 7 out of 10. It is enjoyable but lacking in any real scares. Worth a watch for any horror fan.

The Night House. A film that seems to be as much about loss and depression as it does about a strange haunting. A good film that leaves you feeling unsettled.

 

The Night House. A film by David Bruckner and starring Rebecca Hall.

    This is a strangely sad and creepy film. And when I say creepy, I'm referring to the film's atmosphere. The film centres around Beth, newly a widow after her husband's sudden suicide. Still reeling from his unexpected demise, she is attempting to hold herself together, going through the motions as she begins to unravel. Beth is lost as to why Owen killed himself, saw no warning signs and is confused and angry with the unanswered questions she is left with. During this time, she drinks a lot and is not sleeping well, which is noticeable throughout the film. In short, Beth is barely holding it together, and that is before things begin to take a creepy turn.

    It starts slowly, with a knocking on the door downstairs as she rouses from sleep. Obviously hesitant, she makes her way downstairs, and we see nothing outside. However, as she opens the back door, she looks back to the front door,  the door swinging open behind her. In the reflection, we can make out the shape of a person, with eyes flashing in the darkness before the door closes and the figure vanishes. This is the first time we get the hint that something is lurking in the background. Beth takes back to school, she is a teacher, and it is easy to see that she is not ready to be back. After an encounter with the parent of one of her students, we see that her mental state is not good, along with losing time after appearing to doze off. Beth goes through Owen's things, clearing out much of his stuff before she stumbles on one of his architect books. Here we get to see strange puzzles and notes contained within and what appears to be a copy of the house he built for them. Now things start to take a worrying turn. Woken by music, Beth gets a text from Owen and phones him, and it appears that he answers. Then she wakes up on the bathroom floor again, apparently without any memory of how she got there and checks her phone. The message is not there. Convinced to go out, Beth joins her friends for drinks. I have to say, she has crappy friends. The line of questioning is inane, and how do they expect a woman who lost her husband a week ago to be entirely rational after everything she has gone through. But, we do learn a few things from this encounter. Firstly, Owen left a note, and secondly, Beth is beginning to believe she is being haunted. And after Claire gets Beth home, she has yet another strange encounter. Before that happens, she tells Claire of the time that she died. Beth tells Claire that whilst she was dead, she saw nothing, that there was no bright light or anything to experience. The word nothing is important to note, as it refers to the note that Owen left.

    Things begin to take another turn from this point. As she begins to experience dreams or visions, Beth learns of another house that Owen had built in the forest. She finds a picture of another woman on Owen's phone that looks like her. Beth begins to obsess over this, determined to discover what Owen had been up to while believing that Owen is visiting her. It is shot in such a way that the viewer may think that this is nothing more than wishful thinking, that her grief is getting the better of her. However, Beth finds the woman in the picture and learns that Owen has been seeing her for some time. The haunting continues, with Beth learning that there may have been more than one woman. Also, her neighbour had known of this after a chance encounters in the woods, Owen coming to him claiming that it would never happen again and that he had 'urges' that he had found a way to manage. As Beth begins to spiral, the haunting becomes more intense, and she discovers that Owen had killed women that looked like her. Beth may be imagining this. Her grief and depression may be getting the better of her. Reaching a climax, the events around her grow darker, and she discovers that this being haunting her is not Owen. She discovers that this entity is what she encountered upon her death, that it has been with her ever since and corrupted Owen to get him to send her back to it. As this dark encounter plays out, we learn that Owen had tried to trick it by sending women that looked like her to it. This encounter leads Beth out on the boat, as the thing looking like Owen attempts to convince her that she has nothing to live for. Her best friend had come looking for her, and her calling out to Beth helped her to push this desire away and cling to life. 

    This film is about a haunting, at least on the surface. But, it feels as though it is more a look at depression, at the emptiness that can swallow up the joy of life, and that is never far from those suffering from depression. Beth had always suffered from dark thoughts, and Owen had held them at bay. He had brought joy to her life, and upon his death, they had returned. Her grief had broken her defences, and she spirals without him. Everything else may be her imagination, or some are real but coloured by her grief and depression. The film does a great job of leaving that open to the viewer.

    I recommend this to any fan of horror, more so psychological horror, and it is an easy 8 out of 10. It is a haunting and sad film that leaves the viewer unsure how much is real and what is merely in the mind of Beth. Definitely, one I would watch again.