Emma Mackey, Frances O'Connor, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, Emily, Halloween Ends and All Quiet on the Western Front
Kermode & Mayo’s Take
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Smile Is a Horror Film About Trauma and Suicide
The curse in the film is clearly an allegory for the burden of trauma and quite a heavy hand in one at that. Unlike Nope, where the audience had to work hard to attach meaning, I feel that it's barely subtext, more just text. From its opening moments to its final scene, we are steeped in this world and these themes. The protagonist is suffering from PTSD from events at the start of the film and as we found out later, something further back in her past. Suicide is very taboo subject, but quote, evidence suggests that people who are bereaved by suicide can themselves be at higher risk. In the film, people who died from the curse have passed it
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