Episode 256 - Smile

Podmortem would like to thank Original Cinematic for sponsoring this week's episode. Original Cinematic is an independent production company that has made it their mission to create, produce, and promote films that are inclusive. honor women, promote the LGBTQIA plus community and provide prominent positions and roles to POC actors and filmmakers and promote the films of marginalized and underrepresented populations. These are all things that. are extremely important to our podcast as well.

Both William and Zena Rush are also available via email or Zoom to discuss writing and provide input and resources to all aspiring writers free of charge. Their information will be made available in the show notes. There may be delays due to a hectic schedule and all projects being read on a first-come, first-served basis, but everything will be read and responded to. William Rush has individually produced numerous projects, including PAC is here, before...

The Cottage, The Winemaker, and Day by Day. Their multi-award winning film group premiered and was celebrated at multiple film festivals as well as screenings, both in person and via Zoom, that were graciously made available to us and our patrons.

Original Cinematic has many exciting projects on the horizon. Their next film, Immersion, has been completed. The award-winning Sweetener is in development. Fetish begins shooting in September and Encore will begin next spring. Their documentary, Women in...

conversation is slated for a september release and we're looking forward to each and every one of them it is truly an honor to partner with original cinematic and we can't thank them enough for their contribution to our show and now back to our regularly scheduled program. Salutations! Welcome to Podmortem. I'm Renee Hunter-Vosquez, joined as always by my co-host, my husband and my brother. Hi, I'm John Paul Vasquez. Hi, I'm Travis Hunter-Syappan.

This week, we're recording live from an abandoned childhood home discussing the 2022 psychological horror film, Smile. This film was written and directed by Parker Finn. Smile is Finn's feature length directorial debut, inspired by his short film, Laura Hasn't Slept. This film juggles intense themes of guilt, generational trauma, and mental health struggles while still maintaining an atmosphere of dread and frightening visuals.

Massive success at the box office secured this film's sequel, and with a third announced, it's safe to say that Smile isn't fading away anytime soon. This film was suggested to us by friends of the show. Carissa, James Floyd, Liam, Malik Caselli-Armstrong, Megan M, Solomon.

Smelly Poo Poo Head, Beth Bauer, Sarah Sonnenstein, Daniel Mahoney, and Scott Troutman Wise. We want to thank them all for their support as well as this suggestion. So what did you guys think of Smile the first time you saw it?

I don't remember the exact day or date, but I do remember that we watched it at y'all's parents' house. And I remember not... liking it too much but kind of liking it and like kind of like was like indifferent about how he felt you know i was just like all right uh watching it for the show i will say that i did like it a little more

I did enjoy it more than I did the first time, but I do want to make a confession. I am a little torn also on how I feel still about it now. I do enjoy it more, but I feel like there is some things that happen or that... are going on in the movie for me to just feel kind of uh middle of the road until we get to a certain point and then it's like oh that was really cool and i like that but it it's and i feel like we could have done some things more than

other things or paid attention to some situations or things that are happening more than others but i mean i didn't mind it too much i it's a fun little movie i i think i honestly kind of feel about the same I remember the first time that we watched it. I remember having seen the trailers for it. I can't remember what film I went to go see, but I saw them.

I was not impressed by the trailers at all. And so my expectations were really low. The trailers were very like Blumhouse's truth or dare. And I was like, oh, fuck. But you loved that. Nay. Do not lie to our listeners. So cruel. But what honestly changed my mind about having seen those trailers... is the resulting viral marketing campaign. Yeah. That impressed me a lot because I think we all love when productions do stuff like that. Yeah. Go out into the real world, et cetera. But.

I will say having watched it that first time, it was definitely better than I anticipated it would be. Yeah. But it is, I kind of feel very similar to JP where I'm kind of just a bit in the middle. Yeah. I think that... It borrows from a lot of films that I really like.

in a way that is interesting sometimes and in other times it's almost like, wow, I would much rather be watching It Follows, you know? But I have to say that there is something very interesting about the almost, what, like chain letter curse. Subgenre. Yeah. This subgenre is not one that seems to pop up very often, but every single time it does, it always intrigues me as a concept. Yeah. Because each time it always has its own set of rules. It has the kind of.

villain the creature or whatever to have to you know avoid as best you can and it's always intriguing to see the lore that they put into that right i Just, I don't know, something about it really speaks to me. Maybe it's a matter of always following those chain letters my entire life. I was going to say, it might be the generation that we all grew up in, where it's like, oh my god, now I've got to fucking sit this. It's like, dude, people are going to get so sick.

at me and those are still ongoing by the way oh my god i hate it it's enough yeah it's enough but i think there is a lot to like about this film i think that it looks fantastic oh yeah it is shot so well the production design is fantastic The fucking music. That score is like a secret weapon in this film. Yeah. I really, really appreciate it. I do like all of the performances minus one.

Minus one. And not Godzilla. No. Minus one performance. Godzilla's fine. He showed up. He always shows up. And we'll get to that. Yeah. But, and I know this isn't what the phrase means, but I couldn't resist the pun. Smile. is a little long in the tooth. And I feel like I don't know what it is if it's a matter of pacing for me. But I don't know that this film needs to be two hours long.

No, I agree with that. And I think that kind of goes with how I was saying I feel about that. Because I feel like maybe if we focused on some things that seemed a little more important instead of just... following something or like the camera whatever it is like okay i want to know about that right i don't need it's that i i was gonna say i maybe have a unique perspective from having written the script

it's a lot of lingering. It's a lot of panning. It's a lot of suspense, a lot of buildup. That's your runtime. It's not even what... to me in my opinion what's happening in the film yeah and i feel like i'm usually all for that yeah but there's something about this film where sometimes you're like oh this works it's building that you know suspense and anticipation and then other times it's just like this is just not

Yeah. I don't know, you know, but I feel like there are some really cool moments that will stick with you from having watched the film. Oh yeah. There are even times when I was working on my notes and it was really late and I'm like, I don't know if I really want to.

It's creepy. I'll save it till the morning. Yeah. But then there's other times that it's just like, you know, the maybe the characterization isn't working very well or the way that the story is unfolding. Some of the writing is a little hit or miss for me as well. And I look the ending. I love the idea of the ending. There is a visual that I could not like less. Okay. Frankly. Okay. That's my truth. There I said it. But I enjoy the film well enough. Okay. Yeah.

I really, really like it. I really, really like the ending. And it's something that is interesting to me because word of mouth was.

great like the buzz was great everybody's like smile like this is how you do it we're going back blah blah blah but then I mean to me honestly just like even the premise of it is a bit like creepypasta cheese you know just this idea of a sinister smile you know what i mean maybe it is being a creepypasta kid or whatever yeah but i'm just like i don't know how scary that is really gonna be for me yeah um

But I and then watching it, I was like, oh, that was actually pretty good. I did like it. I was I needed time to marinate with that ending. But I was like, that was pretty good. And then I saw Smile 2. uh-huh and i was like i love smile too we need to cover smile just to get to smile too and then i re-watched them both with ari and i was like i think i love smile as well so it was like this journey of

liking it okay, and then really growing to appreciate it. I think I really like the messaging and the commentary that goes with this film. And it is, at times, pretty fucking bleak. Yeah. As a self-proclaimed bleak bitch. I do appreciate that as well. I think that the ending took so much balls. I enjoy it solely for that. But also.

I like it. I know that there's an aspect of it to you that you loathe. I've been very clear about that. But there is a visual that goes along with that. That is utterly haunting. I'm not going to say this film is perfect because it's not. There is a performance that we have alluded to, much like with Megan, where it's like... damn why are we why did we have to do that um but overall i really love the story i think that zozy bacon is fantastic in this agreed

I've never really, and I know she was in Mare of Easttown. I haven't seen that in a while. This is the first thing that I've seen her, I guess, lead. And she was fantastic. Yeah, I did not know that she was from the same pack of bacon as Kevin. She is indeed. I think there's just so much of this film that are things that I love to watch in horror. like the the descent i see a lot of color symbolism i see i mean hidden shit like mike flanagan style um

I just I don't know. I really do appreciate. And for this to be his first feature film. yeah i mean the competence with which it's direct i i i'm just really i'm really impressed i was gonna say i can't wait to see what he does next but i also love to smile But I think we can touch a little bit on production. So Parker Finn wrote and directed the short film, Laura Hasn't Slept. It was set to premiere at South by Southwest, but...

It was 2020. The festival was canceled due to COVID. Still, they judged the films and Laura Hasn't Slept won the special jury award. And according to producers Isaac Klausner and Robert Salerno, this is what got Finn and his film on their radar. It's a fantastic short. It is. Yeah, it's only about 11 minutes long. That was pretty good. It's really good. But after watching it, they said they were blown away with what he was able to accomplish under the both.

financial and time constraints of a short film. They were just really excited to see what he could do with the feature. So thrilled to be potentially backed by Paramount, Finn got to work on a script, but he was positive that he never wanted to just retread what he had already done. He said that Laura hasn't slept was always meant to be a standalone film, but he kind of felt like there was more there.

So he wrote Smile using the short film as inspiration for a spiritual sibling, not a direct adaptation. But the producers said that that first draft that he wrote was essentially what was greenlit. They loved it. Okay. So Smile was always intended to be, I was surprised to learn, released directly to Paramount+. Kind of wild. Yeah. This wouldn't change until 12 or 13 weeks into post-production when they held their first test screening.

So Finn said that they warned him that horror films don't usually test well, especially dark ones. And Smile was virtually unknown and had pretty much no buzz. So they were like, you need to prepare yourself because. You're probably going to hear not nice things. But they sold out the screening in Burbank with 270 people and the crowd loved it.

Finn said they were excited. They were screaming while they were watching it. And he said that once again, Paramount took notice of this and they realize this film needs a theatrical release. So because of this, they kind of waited until the last minute to pivot. And again, there is virtually no buzz around Smile. So brilliantly, this is when they execute this guerrilla marketing campaign. They came up with this plan.

and I don't know if this is true but Finn did say that the producers were like or the marketing people were like they don't want to tip the scales if people notice great if they don't fine but They hired actors to stand in crowds at live events with bright shirts that said smile and they would be smiling deviously and just standing still looking at cameras. So smart. Yes.

They were spotted at baseball games, even in the background of the Today Show. And people did notice and it went viral and it got people talking and it got asses in the seats. Clearly, this was the right move because with a 17 million dollar budget. it smile made 217 million damn a goddamn yeah So as I said, we've already gotten Smile 2 and there's supposed to be a third one being filmed later this year from what I read. And I'm just really excited for us to jump into this franchise.

And it's so incredible. A few test screenings. Yeah. And you end up with, arguably, I would say, the highest grossing horror film of that year. Oh, it has to be. Because that's... That's insane. I didn't realize it made a quarter of a billion dollars. That's nuts. Now, before we traumatize this film, we would like to issue a warning for spoilers. Podmortem is a very in-depth podcast, and in thoroughly discussing horror films, we have no choice but to spoil a thing or two.

If you don't wish to be spoiled please go watch the film then come back and enjoy the show. If you've already seen the film or don't care about spoilers then let's put a smile on. Before the film opens, tense and ominous music resonates over the production vanity plates. Before we get too far into this, we need to talk about the music very quickly. Yes. The composer of this film is a guy called Cristobal Tapia de Vere.

And he actually composed the score for The White Lotus on HBO. Oh. And I think it was the Black Museum episode of Black Mirror. Love Black Mirror. Yeah. And very fittingly, Smile 2. Okay. But the entire concept behind this score was to stay away from conventional things that horror films usually use. So instead of dipping into synths, which is honestly making a very huge comeback.

Yeah. I'm happy about it. Me too. Me too. We all love synth. But they actually decided to dive into an instrument called the daxophone. And that is the lead instrument of what you hear on the majority of this film. Okay. The daxophone is like this piece of wood, and there's a section of a piece that looks like a fretboard of a guitar, but it's kind of small.

And the way that you play it is you kind of saw at it with a bow like you would for like a double bass or a violin. But the way that you play it, it's so interesting because you're able to create these sounds that sounds more.

like a vocalization okay and so whenever he heard and he had read the script he had talked to parker finn and he said i think i want to make the daxophone like the featured piece in this score and he had played a few things for him and finn was like you know that almost sounds like evil laughter it does at times or like rasping or breathing or something yeah

And so this concept really intrigued him because of how, I mean, well, we're talking about a smile, you know, and we're talking about a lot of things that are. Very supernatural. Maybe evil. So it fit very well. But the very interesting thing is that... He had said that whenever he was wanting to locate a Daxaphone, he said that you can't just buy one. He had mentioned that there are only like two people in the United States that make them. Oh, my God. And so he had to have one made.

And the way that he even found out about this instrument was browsing YouTube and seeing different people playing this instrument and making such interesting songs with it. And so when he received it, he learned how to play it. Because he didn't know. Oh, my God. And so I read in Composer magazine, he said that he recorded the whole day. So in 24 hours, what he needed for the film on this saxophone, he recorded in one day.

And then he would manipulate it later with other sounds. He did bring in some sense, but they're very muted as compared to how much he used the daxophone. Yeah. But it's so interesting because this does not feel like a typical horror film score. Yeah. It's very.

unconventional and it's because he used a very unconventional instrument yeah it is it's very creepy i had even told john paul because he was in the other room when i finished my script and there's a song that plays on the on the credits and then when it's over the score takes over and so i came out into the living room and i was like that It's scaring me. Because when I'm doing the script, I always watch through the credits just in case. I was like, I'm getting fucking scared.

And it sounds like screaming at the end. It's terrifying. I heard it was a part. I hadn't started it yet, but. your sister was in here watching it and of course she's got it a little a little louder because she's you know what i mean yeah trying to pay attention to everything and i could hear the music and all i could think i was like damn something's going down i don't know what's going on

want to go in there she'll be fine she can handle it but afterwards the screen cuts to black and the music stops but it drops back in along with the first shot of the film Mom, played by Dora Kiss, lies on a mattress, her eyes open and pale, bile blotting the comforter in front of her mouth. We stare at her vertically, the mattress obscuring half of the frame, and Mom looks back at us sightlessly.

Our view of her slowly shifts properly to horizontal, and a haunting music box melody plays. A blanket is pulled up to Mom's shoulder, but she feels no cold. We panned down from the bed to the litter of self-destruction strewn on the floor, rumpled clothes, snubbed out cigarette butts, wine bottles, and small white prescription pills dotting the blue carpet like sinister stars.

The music continues to echo as we glide across the room, up to a dresser, and past a neat stack of magazines and a half-eaten sandwich with a half-smoked cigarette shoved carelessly in its center. And there, standing to... among more prescription bottles is a photo of a sweet little family mother father and two little girls smiling back at us we continue to the doorway as the music grows more frantic and desperate

There stands 10-year-old Rose played by Megan Brown Pratt, her eyes wide and her face stricken as she struggles to comprehend the horror before her. A very bold and frightening place to start. Yes. I do want to commend the casting because this child actor looks so much like her adult counterpart. Yes. It's fantastic. It really is. But an abruptly ringing phone wakes Rose Cotter, played by Sozie Bacon, from her accidental nap, slumped over the desk in her office.

She wakes with a start and takes a moment to wipe the nightmare from her face before plucking the phone from its cradle. She answers in a calm voice. Dr. Cotter. Sozie Bacon. Yes. So she was in 13 Reasons Why, Narcos Mexico, and Mayor of Easton. Oh, see, that's what I had seen her in. Okay. I really liked that show. It was good. I never watched... scream the tv series i think she was in that for a good chunk oh i i never saw it see i know her from narcos mexico really yeah okay

Parker Finn said that he was a huge fan of her work in Mare of Easttown. And so when she said she was looking to do something that scared her, he had a feeling that they were going to be able to make something work. But. He said that her turnaround as an actor was almost the same as the crew because she's in just about every scene.

So it was exhausting and grueling. And Sozie Bacon even said that she had no idea the toll that it would take on her. But they said that she was a machine because she is on constantly. And she has to go to so many places. physically and emotionally and i mean she it's a lot and she does a great job yeah she carries this yeah

Abruptly, though, we cut to Carl Rankin played by Jack Socket. His face is clammy and fatigued as he quickly mutters, he's going to die. She's going to die. Mom's going to die. I'm going to die. Everybody dies. When Rose steps into the spotless room, Carl sits in a blue chair with his hands stuffed deep into the pockets of his hoodie and his knees jostle uneasily.

The walls behind him are painted in a calming blue, but the flowers on the table in front of him are a bright yellow. That was the first thing my eye went to. Yeah. Rose stands with orderly Dan, played by Jared Johnston, who crosses his arms and tells her in a low tone that he hasn't been able to get Carl to respond to him at all. He just does this.

He indicates Carl, who continues his low and constant muttering. Rose pats Dan on the shoulder and thanks him, assuring that she's got it from here. Dan leaves. Rose sets her clipboard down on the table before lingering at the chair across from Carl. He continues his constant chanting, adding that he doesn't matter. She doesn't matter. Mom doesn't matter. Nothing ever matters. I don't matter. I don't matter. I don't matter.

After a moment of observing him Rose picks up the chair and moves it closer to Carl. She sets it down next to him and takes a seat. Once she's beside him, Carl can't finish his sentences. He struggles to keep up with his morbid mantra as tears stream down his face, but he finally cuts off his rambling in a whimper. Rose greets him with a simple... Hi, Carl. She asks him what's going on today. Carl trembles as he tells her, still facing forward that he's dying.

Rose assures him that he's not she shakes her head with sympathy and says that she doesn't think so she thinks he's having another manic episode. She reaches out a reassuring hand for him, but Carl tells her firmly, don't, don't you tell me. He asserts that she doesn't know because he feels it all around him, squeezing him. Carl sobs before admitting that he's scared. Rose's voice is still calm, even as she allows that she knows what he's experiencing feels real, but it can't hurt him.

Carl pauses when she says this and Rose follows it up with a promise. After their interaction, she steps out into the pink hallway of the hospital, followed by orderly Dan, who leads Carl away with a gentle hand on each arm. Carl, though, has begun his chanting again.

You had mentioned about the very pink walls. Yes. I saw an interview with the production designer, a guy called Lester Cohen, and he had said that earlier in his career, because he's had a long career, he did... juice in 92 wow like he's and he also did smile too all right but he had said that early in his career he was working on a film that featured a prison

And the prison had very pink walls on the inside. And he had asked the people working there the point of it. And they had told him that the pink is meant to be calming. And that it, quote, makes people less violent. And so he said it was like a Pepto-Bismol color. And that's what we get here.

Yeah, when I passed through a place, I want to say it was in Lubbock or Oklahoma, all our underwear and undershirts and socks were pink. Really? Yeah. That is so interesting to me, like the psychology behind that. Here it reads like it's forced, I don't know, like cheeriness or something. Because it is so eye-catching. Almost like a fake smile? Oh, yes.

But just one last thing about this hospital, they had actually secured a filming location that was a real hospital, but they were shooting, of course, in the midst of COVID. And they lost this hospital for obvious reasons. Yeah. And so they had to very quickly build up a set of a hospital, which did help them. That allowed them to realize their design ideas like this.

wall color and everything. But a lot of the exteriors that we do see are of a real hospital, but they only had one day to shoot all of their exteriors. Oh, and so there's some there's one really cool shot coming up. Yeah, that we see. And they said that took forever. But there's a few other scenes that are the exterior of the hospital. And just keep in mind all of that one day. That's incredible.

And I wouldn't have guessed that this was a set either. Yeah. Me neither. You could have fooled me. Yeah. But Rose steps over to the nurse's station and greets nurse Wanda, played by Yura Yohana Sanchez. She tells Wanda that she's going to put Carl in observation for a few days. She adds that he's harmless, but just to make sure that someone checks on him every few hours. Wanda accepts this, but as Rose starts to walk away, she raises her eyebrows and cautions that Dr. Desai is looking for her.

Rose offers a thin smile and thanks her. Outside a siren wails and we watch from above as an ambulance pulls up to the hospital. Paramedics rush to get the patient out of the back and it's a woman restrained to a gurney. She screams and flails as much as she can. The cries echoing as she's wheeled into the facility.

We leave them floating up the side of the building until we reach an office window and we glide inside through the glass. Is that what you referred to? It was really cool. Yeah. I appreciated that a lot. Yeah. Rose lets herself into the office, closing the door behind her, and she offers a smile to Dr. Morgan Desai, played by Cal Penn. Cal Penn. Yeah. We all know Harold Kumar. Of course. All of them. The White Castle. All of them. The Christmas. There's a few.

But he asks Rose if she sent a patient to residency yesterday, and Rose confirms this. The patient had a history of drug abuse and had been in and out of their unit a few times. Dr. Desai sighs and reminds Rose that that patient has no insurance. An aggravated edge to her voice, Rose insists that the patient still needed treatment, but Desai shares that the board is down his throat about paying out of pocket for another bed in the residency program.

Rose, though, proposes that the board try giving a shit about the point of their job once in a while. Seeing how upset she is, Desai slides on his glasses. He tells her that he's not questioning her judgment, but to just let him know ahead of time next time so that he can get in front of it. Rose agrees and apologizes. I will say unexpected baby face turn. Yes. Because I was like, fuck you.

You don't know shit. Patient care. But then he's right. And he wants to help. Rose turns to leave, but Desai stops her, asking, wait, you haven't been here since late shift last night, have you? And it's like, oh, that's why she was fucking sleeping on her desk. Yeah, I thought she was just a bad employee. In a tilted angle in her doorway, we cut to Rose in her own office, pulling on her blue coat.

She turns off the light and closes the door as she leaves her office. But we linger inside, panning slowly back over to her desk where the phone begins to ring. We press in on it as its droning ring continues, but suddenly the door opens, spilling light into the office, and Rose's hand snatches the phone off its cradle, answering, Dr. Cotter. Take your ass home. You were told, go home and rest. This is literally, if she just went home, the movie ends here. This is a cautionary tale.

Never go above and beyond. At your job. Get some rest. When it's time to clock out, you clock the fuck out. In the hallway, she's briefed by a nurse played by Vanessa Cozart. The nurse details the situation with the 26-year-old college student patient, Laura Weaver. The police recalled on her for a public disturbance.

Looking over paperwork on a clipboard, Rose asks if the patient has any psych history, and the nurse says that she doesn't have any on file, but the police provided the report of a different incident that she was involved in last week. Rose and the nurse stop walking and Rose questions what the incident was about. So the nurse tells her a professor at her school bludgeoned himself to death with a hammer.

Laura Weaver was interviewed as the only witness. Rose can only ask. A hammer? Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. She steps into the room where she had just sat with Carl with its comforting blue walls but no one is sitting in the chairs in the middle of the room. Rose looks around but as the heavy door slowly closes on its own we see her.

Laura Weaver, played by Caitlin Stacy, standing timidly in the corner, scratches healing on her face. So Caitlin Stacy played Laura in Laura Hasn't Slept. Very cool. The short, yeah. Finn said that the role in this film, he wanted something that kind of paralleled what happened in the short while still being mindful to his kind of promise to himself not to retread things that he's already done. But he said that.

This was always going to be Caitlin Stacy. He wrote this for Caitlin Stacy. He always wanted her to play this role and that it was never going to be anybody else. Okay. I really appreciate that. just a matter of people that were with you for this and then you get a feature you know definitely love that a lot and she's great in both oh yeah and she her face is like the poster for the film yeah so like that's that's really cool

And speaking of the title, Laura Hasn't Slept, I remember reading that the original title for Smile was supposed to be Something's Wrong with Rose. Yeah. Okay. Which is very interesting to me as a title. Yeah. It's a cool title, I think. It's intriguing. but you can just hear executives being like no something shorter something you know what i mean like poochie but not so lame

Rose greets her by name but Laura is skittish gasping and trying to back up even further into the wall she's already standing against. Rose introduces herself as Dr. Cotter a therapist. She invites Laura to sit down with her, but when she starts to step toward her, Laura backs up into the wall again. Rose accepts this with a soft okay.

Laura looks back at her desperately and Rose understands that she's nervous. She tells her that that's okay. She just wants to have a chat. After Rose promises that this is a safe place, Laura responds in a shaky voice. Not for me. Rose asks why she would say that, but Laura only replies with shaky breaths, her eyes filled with tears.

Rose invites her again to come sit down, setting the example by crossing the room and settling into one of the blue chairs. She takes a recording device out of her pocket and turns it on, gently asking Laura, please, as she sets it on the table. Laura has to hug herself and force her way across the room on shaking legs, but she finally makes it and sits down across from Rose.

Rose prefaces their conversation with a warning that she has to ask her a couple questions that might sound stupid. She asks Laura what day of the week it is. Laura answers Thursday. When Rose asks what month it is, Laura answers quickly that it's October, adding that she's not crazy. Rose reminds her softly that no one is saying that, but Laura asserts that she needs Rose to understand that. She's a PhD candidate, not a lunatic. Rose asks her to take a breath and just tell her what's going on.

Laura's breath shudders from her as tears roll down her face. Lowering her gaze, she finally confesses that she's seeing something and it's something that nobody else can see except for her. She looks back up at Rose defensively, conceding that she knows how insane that sounds, but she can't explain this thing. Rose calmly asks what Laura is seeing, and Laura explains that it looks like people, but it's not a person.

Rose admits that she doesn't understand and Laura is frustrated she stomps her feet as she reiterates emphatically that it looks like different people sometimes it pretends to be someone she knows sometimes it looks like a stranger it looks like her grandfather who died in front of her when she was seven. She sobs though that it's all the same thing. It wears people's faces like masks. I know that this sounds crazy, or like far-fetched, whatever. I think, and I only say this because...

I know school is really hard and I watched you when you went to school and all the work you had to do. That wasn't a PhD. But I feel like hearing someone else say, look.

i'm i'm not i'm not crazy i have been going to school i'm whatever even anything even look i've been going to work i'm still taking care of whatever i'm not crazy listen to me okay i okay let me look at this from differently than not just you're having an episode yeah yeah what what what do you mean they look like somebody else explain more let's

be a little more sympathetic if you want to continue to get better answers. Yeah. I feel like that's honestly part of the true horror of this film is the fact of attempting to explain. Nobody's going to believe anything. It's that. And I saw an interview. with Parker Finn where he said that he was trying to think of what would scare him the most. And the scariest things that he could think of were his own mind.

not being in control of it anymore and his support system not believing him when he tells them something okay and it's like that is And we can talk about that even more later on with this. Yeah. We got a lot. We'll get there. I'm starting to get a little keyed up. But that is horrifying to know. That you are experiencing this. And yeah, I mean, it's.

it's fucking scary. And that's why I feel like Caitlin Stacy does such a great job because we don't know her. You know what I mean? This is the first time we're seeing her, but there's such a desperation. I saw actually in a making of. that she said that she used animals as inspiration when it's just their sole focus is survival. Okay. And it's not anything else. It's not trying to...

I mean, necessarily convince anybody. It's just like, I want to live, you know? And I mean, we see that in a moment. Yeah. But Rose sighs out an understanding. Okay. She asks if Laura can see it right now. Laura lowers her eyes as she shakes her head. Rose inquires as to what happens when Laura does see it. And Laura shares that it's smiling at her, but it's not a friendly smile. It's the worst smile she's ever seen in her life. And whenever she does see it.

She has a god-awful feeling that something terrible is going to happen. I appreciate a lot of the writing in this film, but it's the worst smile I've ever seen in my life. Not great. She's desperate, man. She is. She was doing so well with the masks and all this. She's like, but it's like a fucking ugly smile. Have you ever seen a smile? but a bad one that's just rude yeah shuddering laura admits that she's never felt scared like she does when she sees it

Rose asks if Laura or anyone in her family has ever experienced hallucinations, but Laura snaps that it's not a hallucination. It's real. She pleads with Rose that she just doesn't get it. It does things to her and it causes shit to happen around her. She cries that it's taken over her whole life in her mind.

She interrupts herself to inform Rose that it tells her things. It told her that today's the day she's gonna. She can't bring herself to say it and Rose mercifully cuts her off. She assures her that that's okay. Just like she told Carl, she tells Laura that she knows what she's experiencing feels incredibly real. But sometimes when we're emotionally overwhelmed or we experience an intense trauma, our minds tend to...

But Laura interrupts, struck with the realization that Rose is not listening to her. She sobs and rocks in her chair, lamenting that she's going to fucking die and no one will listen to her. She covers her mouth and cries, turning away from Rose. Rose reaches out to her, imploring her that it will be okay and to just look at her. But Laura finally turns her way.

and sees something that causes her to shriek. She jumps back, causing her chair to tip and Laura to go crashing onto the ground, landing hard on her back. Rose gets to her feet and Laura scrambles away, frantically crawling backwards and screaming that it's here. Rose assures her that it's just them there's no one else here but Laura is hysterical she backs up all the way to the wall shrieking at the top of her lungs we go around Rose as she looks suspiciously behind her but

There is nothing there. On the floor, though, Laura is writhing and her screams are cut short when her body contorts unnaturally. She can only manage strained groans as she chokes. She said that Parker Finn told her this right here, this performance can't be too big. Do whatever you want. Go for it. Okay. It can never be too much. He was like, just do it. I think it works. Oh my God. Yeah. It's disturbing.

Rose snaps into action and runs to the red phone on the wall. She notifies the person on the other end of an emergency and requests staff pleading with them to hurry. She sets the phone back down and turns to look at Laura, but she's gone. The vase of yellow flowers, however, is shattered on the floor. Rose turns fully around and finds Laura standing up as if nothing happened.

Her lips are curled up, baring her teeth in a bright but disconcerting smile. Rose says her name gently and tries to approach, but Laura clutches a piece of the shattered vase in her scratched hand. The score grows distorted and Rose can do nothing but watch as Laura raises the shard to her face. Still smiling at Rose, she buries the sharp tip into her cheek just below her eye and she...

drags it down all the way down her cheek and across her throat. Her smile does not falter as the blood pours down. Rose stumbles backward against the wall shocked. Laura finally falls and Rose slides down the wall to the floor as well as her legs fail her. But Laura is still smiling at her as the pool of blood spreads beneath her head. I was surprised by how graphic we were there the whole time. Oh, yeah. Unflinchingly. Yeah. Yeah. And there was a lot of time Rose.

Rose. There's freeze as well. There is. There's fight flight and freeze. People forget about freeze. Yeah. And she's we've seen that she's essentially been up for fucking at least a day straight. That's true. I'll give her that.

You're like all allowed. I'm sorry, Rose. I'm real sorry. I watched on that making of that this slit throat was a blend of practical with a little digital added for... the blood oh but it was a prosthetic of a slit throat with the tube of blood running through it and they said that after they did this they ended up with like half a gallon of blood on the floor because it was real blood pouring out of it yeah

I also thought it was really cool that none of the smiles in this film are digitally enhanced at all. I love that. Yeah, I'll be honest. I thought they all were. Yeah, no, not at all. On commentary, Finn had said that the studio tried to pressure him into doing digitally enhanced smiles. And I can only assume he didn't mention, but I can only assume that he watched Blumhouse's Truth or Dare. And he's like, fuck no. Truth or Dare is catching so many slugs today. As it should.

That's the movie with the barrel or something. That's all I really remember. No, that's what would you do? Okay, then I don't know. And I ride hard for that movie. No, no, no. That's what you rather. What would you do is John Kinyonis. I always do that. This is the darkest episode. I ride so hard for that film. I don't remember the name of it. But you feel it in your heart. I do. I loved it. A rose by any other name. Which brings us back to Rose. What's going on?

But there is no sound but the ominous score as orderlies rush in in their crisp white uniforms, checking for Laura's pulse and running for help. We pan across the room to Rose where she sits against the wall traumatized and crying. Tears rolled down her face and we continue to press in, into the rich brown of her eyes, into her pupil. And it's in this darkness that we get the title, strobing in a furious red with a score to punctuate.

Eat strobe. Smile. I love it. Look, I like how we get to the title. Okay. I feel like contextually, this is not the film for this. it's kind of, there's nothing digital about this. There's nothing like, it's just a very strange choice. I, I, I'm going to be honest. I don't mind it.

i'm i was very interested it did come out and i was just like oh shit yeah um i i do want to say though with how the music or whatever was going on with it there you missed an opportunity to open the music with like dubstep

or like some tech or something. You could have just went into it. I think that's what I honestly expected is somebody to be listening to something like that in their car after this scene. So for the score to never sound like this again, to have never sounded like it before, it's very odd. choice yeah parker fit okay he said that he wanted the title to be delayed and i do love a delayed title me too okay i always appreciate it yeah um but he wanted it to be very anxiety inducing

He said that it had to be retooled, though, because the original title screen failed the Harding test, meaning that it could have triggered seizures. Oh, shit. So I guess they had to tone down the flashing. So it would have been even more wild than this. It almost, that would fit Smile 2 much better. Yes. Yes.

I'm trying to remember the title. I don't know either, dude. I remember when it happens, but I don't remember what it looks like. Aw, shucks. Guess I gotta watch Smile 2 again. Oh, no. Darn it. When we see Rose again, she is sitting alone in an office. She looks through the glass wall where Dr. Desai is in an intense conversation with Detective Buckley, played by Perry Strong.

But between them is another detective, Joel, played by Kyle Gallner, whose attention is on Rose. He offers her a small wave and Rose quickly averts her eyes. We love Kyle Gallner in this house. Absolutely. He's okay. I love him. We did talk about him in The Haunting in Connecticut in Jennifer's Body. Yeah. Very recently, actually, huh?

hondi in connecticut was recently and he was just in strange darling which i loved yeah he had a very small role in scream five five cream too too small like insultingly small because we okay yes we talk a lot about actors and like giving us a false sense of security because we like them. And Kyle Garner is one for me. When I see him, I'm immediately on his side. I'm immediately rooting for him. Like that could be really.

And it would work very well on me. But later, Rose sits across the table from Joel and Buckley. Buckley asks if Laura was ever a patient here before. And when Rose says no, he asks if Laura was typical of the patients that she sees here. Rose reminds Buckley that this is a psychiatric ward. They don't really do typical here. But Buckley is like, yeah, but she was a head case, right? God damn. Yeah, he's weird.

He's annoying. I also, his name is Buckley, so now I'm just thinking about King of the Hill. I'm trying my best. And I feel like that was a line in something that we covered or we talked about. This is a blank. We don't do normal here. Shutter Island, I think. Oh, that's right. Did I say recently? That was last June.

Time is a flat circle. But I feel like that was a line there. I remember it being some kind of facility where they were like, was it typical? And they're like, there is no typical. I mean, it's a little nod. Yeah. Maybe. Rose asks for clarification on the term head case and Buckley finally takes the hint and quiets down.

Joel takes the reins with a sigh and a cringe explaining that they're just trying to assess Laura's mental state. Rose guesses that she could have been suffering from acute post-trauma psychosis because she was experiencing delusions. Buckley asks about these delusions and Rose continues that Laura was convinced that an evil presence was haunting her. Buckley can only offer yikes. Real quick.

Why does it have to be evil? Why can't it just be a presence? Like, I know it is evil, but I mean, we, we're, you know what I mean? We're just finding out. We don't really know. What if it is something medical or whatever? We don't. Yeah. Yeah. But Laura was pretty clear. Yeah. The angel was very clear on that. Buckley's angel? Yes. I will say, and that was one of the things mentioned on commentary, is that shot from Laura's pool of blood to...

Rose is giving an idea of something. And maybe that is partially where it's coming from because she felt something. Okay. I think interesting too is when, cause I'm assuming that's Laura on the gurney. right screaming and we go from her up the building two rows entering the office that's another there there are really clever moments like that

Joel interjects that they have to contact Laura's family and try to explain what happened here. So they're just trying to make sense of what happened. He says that if there's anything else Rose could share it would help. Rose takes a long pause before sharing that before Laura died, she was smiling. Buckley concludes, yeah, she sounds fucking crazy to me. You wait in the car. Yeah, get this guy off the case.

With the score droning low, we hover over Laura Weaver's body, concealed beneath a white sheet on a gurney. The jagged cut that she made down her cheek and across her neck bleeds through the stark white sheet resembling. a crimson smile there are some really good shots in this film yes with some pretty memorable imagery this was one of them for me okay

And it also kind of explains the reason for the path of that jagged piece of glass. Because if it was just a simple cut, it would not look like that. But this looks really, really frightening. But in a Shining-esque shot, take a shot, we hover over Rose's car as she drives home, finally turning upside down as she continues down the long stretch of highway flanked with trees.

When she finally returns home she closes the door and lingers there for a moment with her back pressed against it. She stares straight ahead but when her cat ventures over to her she looks down. Mustache looks back up at her. Patient and purring. New favorite character just dropped. Thousand percent. Yeah. We ride hard for mustache. no let's keep the quorum let's keep the quorum alive and well i was like i heard it yeah hold on We need that on merch. It's a long about way to say that.

But in her room, Rose takes down her hair and starts to undress. But when she untucks her shirt, she notices a splatter of Laura's blood on it. After gazing at this for a moment, her breath goes shaky as she frantically peels the shirt off before finally standing under the steady stream of the shower.

She has like a tree tattoo on her shoulder. Yeah. Of it like weathering a storm. Yeah. And I was trying to maybe I'm doing a little too much, but, you know, trauma and everything that will soon come to know. Oh, okay. Yeah. I like it. Thank you. Later, Rose stands in front of the open fridge, using her teeth to pull the cork out of a bottle of wine. She pours herself a drink.

The shot lingers for so long that certain expectations are set. But when she closes the fridge door, there is nothing and no one behind it. I was very appreciative. I. Did enjoy that. I think the lingering too long kind of tipped the nothing's going to happen. they're like yeah it's like you want me to think there's something yeah i think the fridge shot is next in line to the medicine cabinet yeah

Where you have that thought and when it's not there, you're like, thank you. Yeah. I admire your restraint. Yes. But Rose leans against the fridge, finishing her wine in one swallow. She gulps it down in size, but a look of concern crosses her face. Panning away from Rose and over the dark kitchen reveals Laura Weaver standing across the room. Her head is tilted downward and her face is twisted in that disturbing smile.

Rose stares at this in shock but when someone speaks her name she gasps and drops her glass. It shatters on the floor next to her socked feet. That shot of her was frightening. I literally, I think this might have been one of the times that I took a break because my only note here is, oh, that low light apparition is quite scary. It's cool as hell though.

it looks really good it does and everybody can relate to that moment where it's late and there's like what the fuck is that my chair is that the monster like we've we've all been there but this is this is worse yeah well this is a little different she's right there yeah it's not a chair yeah not this time i can see you it's the monster But in the kitchen doorway stands Trevor, played by Jesse T. Usher. So Jesse T. Usher. He was in Shaft in 2019 and Independence Day Resurgence in 2016. Okay.

I know him as a train on the boys. Right. We have thoughts. Yeah. Um, so I was very late to the boys as it is right now. I've only seen the first season. But I saw the boys after I saw Smile. I saw Smile with us. We all watched it together. And I remember commenting. Let me let me just say, OK, I watched some interviews with Jesse T. Usher. He seems like a very nice guy. Yes. He's very handsome. His acting style and choices are not for me. OK.

I remember making a comment about that when we watched Smile the first time. And then I watched The Boys and I texted T. I feel like the guy that. plays a train is not a very good actor I had I did not put together that this was the same man and so maybe this is a me thing I guess a tea thing as well and I think John Paul you agree

I I'm kind of at a loss for words because it just is, it is not for me to the point where, and that's the thing. I feel like it's the same thing here. And it was the same thing. in the boys you are around such a fucking phenomenal cast that when you are not up to par it stands out And so I don't know if maybe I saw him in something else with a different cast, if I would feel differently. But that's two strikes for me independently. And I truly did not remember this being the same actor.

I think I think what it is is it's a matter of line readings not being very convincing. Right. And almost feeling forced or almost like almost like. As if the original actor had to abruptly quit the production and he... stepped in it's like an understudy yeah oh okay because it does it doesn't just it feels like reading off of a page a lot of times yeah yeah and it's just not very especially and it's exactly as you said with how good everyone else is it does become apparent and it's distracting.

And it's unfortunate. It's that. It's both times he's pulled me out of what I'm watching because of his performance. I will say that I do feel like he's... doing something different than everybody else's with his performance yeah i haven't seen him in anything else and if i have i apologize because i don't remember seeing him in anything else right um i haven't watched the boys so i don't know how he is in that yeah but here i did

notice it and then by the time I did get to the end of the movie or whatever and spend some time with all our characters and him his performance and maybe it is just that the line readings but it does feel sometimes like he's trying something I don't know what direction He was given or what he's trying to do, but it's like this.

then he was given the same direction in the boys yeah because it's not it doesn't feel I think like you're saying T maybe authentic or it feels a little weird and it's like I don't know if you're the right person to be doing this it's almost like he didn't have the time with the material something I don't I don't understand it I'm not just like with Alison Williams I'm not trying to be mean or whatever but it it is

jarring both performances of his have been jarring to the point where i'm like the fuck like as it like pulls me out of the story but i just really wanted to get that out of the way And he really does seem like a very nice guy. He seems so nice. And he's a really, he's very good looking. It's like he is, he looks the part. Yeah. But it's just the.

Performance. Well, I mean, maybe he's, you know, flying on that. I look nice. I look great. You're lucky to have me. But Trevor switches on the light and looks down at the broken glass with the muted. Whoa. Panting, Rose looks back toward the cupboards where Laura just was, but in the brightly lit kitchen, there is no one there. Trevor comes over asking if he scared her and he helps her over the glass as Rose chuckles uneasily that she didn't hear him come in.

They kiss and she forces a smile. Concerned, Trevor asks her what's up and her nerves clearly frayed. Rose says nothing. Trevor says declaratively now that there is something wrong and Rose drops the facade. She admits that her patient died today. Trevor immediately pulls Rose into an embrace, apologizing. As she rests her head against Trevor's chest, she adds that it happened right in front of her and it was awful. Trevor offers his apologies again and asks what he can do.

I feel like this is just an awful character moment. What she just told you, not only did one of her patients die, she witnessed this death. And all you can muster is, oh, I'm sorry. sorry about that that's like what you're so like i understand in a lot of these situations it's something so terrible that maybe you don't know what to say yeah but sometimes like an embrace or just and

I just feel like he's not meeting the moment as her fiance. Right. Yeah. And I will admit that I can be a little dramatic. I feel like my my reaction, it's more akin to like on. Real Housewives of Atlanta when Kenya tells Cynthia that Velvet died and she makes it worse by overreacting. That's more where I'm at. And so to see this and him be like. damn dude like it is just it's so not my language at all that I'm like

Did he hear what she said? Yeah, no. She didn't miss the bus on the way home. Yeah. I'm sorry. He's like, damn, dude. That sucks. Can I give you a ride tomorrow? Is there anything I can do? He's not paying attention. No. He just knows it was bad news. Yeah. He looked for a fucking answer. He just clicked on a response. Rose looks back over at the cupboards where she saw Laura before squeezing her eyes shut. She buries her face closer into Trevor's chest and tells him that this is a nice start.

After thinking for a moment, Trevor proposes that maybe they should bail on dinner tonight. Rose looks up at Trevor and laughs before pulling away, chiding that they can't. She reminds him that Holly got a sitter and it'll be an even bigger headache. They don't go. She gets a broom and dustpan from the cabinet and Trevor quips sarcastically. No way. Holly turning into a headache.

He takes the broom from her and goes to clean the shattered glass, but Rose stops him with a kiss before he gets to work. She leans on the counter as he sweeps, still looking uneasy. We cut to Rose in a daze, sitting on the patio of a restaurant. Next to her, Holly, played by Jillian Zinser, rambles about having to make her son breakfast and pack him lunch because of the potential non-organic garbage in the school's cafeteria. But to Rose, her voice is muffled and far away.

She continues to go on about her busy schedule, lamenting not having been to Pilates in weeks, and we continue panning out to see Trevor sitting next to Rose and Holly's husband Greg, played by Nick Arapaglou, sitting next to her. I just want to point out very quickly. I feel like Holly and Greg are in a completely different film for the entire film. There is a very funny moment.

in this section when it's kind of faded out in the audio or whatever like holly says about the pilates or whatever and she's like my body is fucked and you just hear greg go not true Not true. It's like Will Ferrell. It's very strange. I get they're trying to make it seem like... normal but it is funny yeah and their their dynamic is pretty funny like even as we see later in moments that shouldn't be yeah it's kind of odd but it's just who they are i guess

But when Holly mentions that her body is fucked from the lack of Pilates, he dutifully chimes in that that's not true. But other than that, Holly is the only one talking. She finally sums up her tirade that weekdays are literally impossible by leaning back. her chair and taking a gulp of her wine. Pointing at Rose she confirms that she is coming Saturday right?

Rose doesn't remember what Saturday is, and Holly is offended. She asks if she's joking. It's Jackson's seventh birthday party, and she told Rose like five times. Rose replies flatly that she can't because she has to work. Holly is like, but it's Saturday. And Rose nods. I work on Saturday. I'm like, why do people not? Why do people not understand this? Annoyed Holly tells her that this is why she needs to get out of that gross hospital and into a private practice.

Rose bristles at the word gross and denies that it is. But Greg chimes in that there's got to be a lot of crazies out there that will pay her for her time. I'm like, what the fuck? And I wonder, is this commentary on... stigma of mental illness i think it has to be because this is two characters three characters now yeah it's been like oh i mean she's a nutcase right it's like what are you saying right now

Rose sarcastically thanks him for his input, but Greg laughs as he underlines his point. Why become a doctor if you can't get disgustingly rich? Trevor finally joins in, asking if Greg is kidding. Rose loves being a doctor. She would do it for free. Rose looks at him with gratitude, but this only quiets the other couple down for a second. Holly points out that while they're on the subject of wasted potential. God damn. They could always sell the fucking house.

Rose asks if they can please not do this right now, but Holly continues anyway. She says that she just doesn't understand. The house is just sitting there. But Rose reminds her that that's the house they grew up in. Greg pipes up again, offering that the house is a total teardown and she can get money for the land. Rose finally snaps at them. Can you guys just shut the fuck up? Greg is like, wow.

The server comes to hand out their plates and Rose thanks him brightly. Holly quietly drains the rest of her glass of wine and Greg looks down at his plate with a smile, sharing excitedly that he's been looking forward to this. in here no greg is in a different movie yes but to me i'm like we did see whatever we saw at the beginning i don't think that it's greg's place if i'm greg

And my wife and her sister are talking about this and she's like, we grew up there and blah, blah, blah. I'm shutting the fuck up and I'm waiting for my food. This is not my place. I am not your sibling. I did not grow up in that house. I like nothing. The fact that Greg's like, just fucking get money for the, I was like, you dude suck. Like that's wild. I would never chime in on that.

But Rose and Trevor arrive back home and Mustache comes to the door to greet them, following Rose when she crosses into the living room and Trevor sets the alarm. In the kitchen, she empties a can of cat food into a bowl and Trevor steps behind her, leaning against her as he asks if she's okay. Rose assures him that she is before setting the bowl on the floor for a grateful and hungry mustache. She strokes his fur.

The next morning, she stands in front of the coffee machine in the hospital break room and her hand dangles a white mug with a black smiley face on the side. Interesting. Pretty cool. Orderly Dan comes in to get something out of the fridge. He tells her good morning and although he's out of focus behind her, it's enough to snap Rose out of her stupor and tell him good morning back.

I'm sorry. I know that she's out of it, whatever, but that looks kind of funny. She's there like Robert Pattinson in the kitchen. She's just standing by the bench. It's like, Rose, are you okay? He's just like, good morning, Rose. With her coffee in hand, Rose visits the nurse's station. When Wanda finishes a phone call, Rose brings up Laura Weaver. She says that the police sent the report from the other incident she was involved in.

She asks if Wanda can get it forwarded to her, and Wanda tells her that she can. Before she leaves, though, Rose brings up that she was supposed to have a session with Jane Park today. But Wanda breaks the news that the patient pulled out a bunch of her hair overnight and swallowed all of it. So she's down in medicine having her stomach. It's terrible. Rose reacts with the quiet shit as she takes a sip of her coffee.

But behind her, Joel stands, shifting uncomfortably. He clears his throat, but when Rose doesn't turn around, he finally calls her name. She starts to ask what he's doing here and Joel explains that he was on a call nearby. He thought he would stop in since they didn't really get to talk yesterday other than what happened. He wants her to know that when the call came in, he didn't know it would be her. It was weird and he...

sorry i really appreciated the very subtle hint of them knowing each other yeah when that wave yeah yeah through the glass yeah and then it leads to this moment and you're like oh you could pick up i really like that But Rose tells him that that's his job. She gets it. He asks how she's been, but Rose still wants to know why he's here.

Joel says again that he was on a call nearby and he just thought he'd come in to check on her. What happened yesterday wasn't easy. Rose says that she appreciates it, but she doesn't need him to check on her. Joel takes this in and tells her that she's right. He offers an awkward apology, but Rose says that she needs to get back to work. She gives him a somber, see you around, as she rounds the nurse's station.

Joel stays behind, looking after her, but Wanda speaks up from behind the counter, her tone cautionary. You know she's engaged, right? Joel snaps his attention to her and smiles as he nods that he does know this. But Wanda smirks as she shares that she's single. Wow, Wanda. I was like, okay, Wanda. In Rose's office, she looks over the police report, highlighting certain phrases.

Weaver reports that Munoz approached her wielding a claw hammer, then proceeded to bludgeon himself repeatedly. Munoz smiled at her. Rose stares at this last one, the concerning words highlighted in blue as her phone begins to ring. Rose glances over at the screen, identifying the caller as Holly. And after a moment, she picks up. On the other end Holly says that she's sorry about last night. She shouldn't have kept going at her like that.

Rose walks over to the window and pulls the blinds aside as she commiserates. She's sorry too. She's been dealing with a lot and she hasn't been very good company, but her expression contorts when she looks out the window. We see someone standing in the courtyard alone. They seem to be looking right up at her window, right up at her.

With the niceties out of the way, Holly tells Rose that if she can't make it to her nephew's birthday, she could at least get him a present. He's really into model trains. I'm like, okay, this is why we're calling. This was the apology. Rose just responds with a noncommittal, uh-huh, as she lets the blinds fall closed. And Holly points out that she sounds weird. When she asks Rose if she's okay, Rose forces a smile and assures her sister that she's fine.

I don't know that I caught this on the first watch, but this person that appears out of the window is someone that we have seen before. Okay. And we'll see again. Yeah, I didn't catch it. I'm not gonna lie till my third time watching it. Right. I thought it was just an eerie like there's somebody out there because even Laura said sometimes there's strangers. Sometimes there are people I know. Sometimes there are people that I know to be dead. So, yeah.

Very good. And why wouldn't you say anything to your sister? I know maybe it seems like y'all's relationship is a little strange or something. Yeah, Holly sucks. Yeah, that's true. And she does. But I mean, you're still there. You're seeing this. You're... something tragic happened to you at work uh-huh say as far as we know she hasn't said anything and her saying things have just been bad say something yeah all she said was i'm dealing with a lot yeah yeah which is underselling it yeah

Later, she walks down the pink hallway past doctors, nurses, orderlies, past patient rooms. Everyone is in their own world, immersed in their own conversations. But the last room she passes has the patient sitting straight up in bed facing the doorway. Rose pauses before going back to look again and it's Carl sitting on the neatly made bed facing Rose and smiling. Rose leans in the doorway and asks him how he's feeling today, but Carl doesn't respond. He only smiles.

Rose goes into the room and leans into Carl's face. She snaps her fingers at him and he still doesn't react. She continues to call his name, growing more concerned. But Carl begins his mantra again, forming the words around. smile she's gonna die I'm gonna die everybody dies Rose instructs Carl to look at her and he does, snapping his head in her direction and intoning, you're going to die. You're going to die. You're going to die.

I understand why this is scary, but it's also very funny to me. It's a choice. I think what it is is that it's too proper. going to yes yeah and i think that honestly takes away from it for me it's the inflection of this very proper sentence it's actually hilarious because everything else is gonna she's gonna die i'm gonna die yeah yeah you're going to die

It's like, what the fuck? He said I want to be very clear. Yeah, I think you're right because I get it and this is a very scary situation. Right. You know what I mean? But it is that you having to say every single fucking thing and say, hold on. Wait a minute. Are you fucking with me? Are you serious? He gets louder and louder and rises to his feet. Rose backs out of the room as Carl advances on her. She yells out into the hallway for help, saying that Carl is 5150 and needs to be restrained.

Orderlies rush over, but when we follow them into the room, Carl is lying in the bed. He screams no as they pull him from it. They force him onto the floor and he fights as they restrain him. Rose watches all of this from the doorway with her eyes full of tears. That is frightful in a whole different way. Yes.

And it's also maybe a little bit of commentary, too, because literally he was doing nothing at all. No, he was laying in bed. But the orderly is still snapped as if he had done something. Yeah.

But the chaos is cut short by the quiet of Dr. Desai's office. He sits behind his desk, looking at Rose on the other side with concern. He clicks his pin in the silence. Rose finally speaks up, reporting that Carl was a great... and acting psychotic Desai reminds Rose that Carl has been in and out of the facility a dozen times he's never even been remotely aggressive

Rose asks if he thinks she's making it up, but he assures her. Of course he doesn't. But yesterday, a patient in Rose's care brutally killed herself right in front of Rose. He asks her if it's possible that when she thought Carl was a danger. to himself could that have been what her mind was reacting to which is very fair Rose shifts in her chair and sighs before admitting that she may have misinterpreted the situation maybe she overreacted

Desai nods and tells her gently what's gonna happen next. She's gonna take a paid week off. Rose immediately tells him that that's not necessary. But Desai points out that she's been working 80 hour weeks for months. He's concerned that she hasn't been sleeping. They can't help these patients if they don't have their own mental health in check.

He says that it's in the unit's best interest for her to just take a break to clear her head. He tells her to do what she has to do and come back focused. But Rose looks wounded. A paid week off. I'm telling you, there's so many shows and movies where people are like, no, no, no. It's like, are you fucking, are you insane? Yes. It's maybe even worth the unflinching horrors. She will experience him. There's a lot of things I would do for him. But he is right, though. Absolutely. Yeah. 100%.

And when we met her, even before all this, she was clearly overworked. Rose is bundled in her blue coat as she walks briskly to her car. When she gets behind the wheel, she closes her eyes and tries to get herself under control. We press in on her face as she studies her breathing. After viewing the city upside down, we join Rose in the back of her car. She stopped at a red light when she turns and sees a hobby store.

We watch from the window as eerie music box tones chime and a shopkeeper boxes up a toy train. As he speaks with her, Rose smiles politely and fidgets nervously. once it's boxed up she pays for the toy but we glide down to a vintage print ad where a happy family smiles brightly at us i thought that was cool

I really do like stuff like that. Yeah. I think that there are a couple of instances of that that are kind of subtle and pretty frightening when you discover them. I want a few more Easter eggs like that. okay agreed yeah back at home rose gets herself a glass of wine and pulls down wrapping paper to get her nephew's gift ready when her phone chimes it's a text from trevor

In response to her message asking if he'll be home soon, he's replied, sorry, still stuck at work. Hope you had a better day today with a smiley face. I will say. Looking at Trevor's contact photo. Yes. He's smiling. A regular degular closed mouth smile. Okay. Moving on. Rose sends a text in response before setting the phone down nervously and finishing her wine she returns to the dark kitchen with slow measured steps Rose refills her glass and leans against the fridge draining it again

Suddenly, the alarm starts blaring, startling Rose and causing her to drop the glass again, shattering it against the floor. She shields her ears and screams, fuck. But the shock subsides and she looks around fearfully. Rose snatches up the scissors she was cutting the wrapping paper with and she arms herself with shaking hands. Maybe I'm alone.

But I do notice that Rose drinks wine like whiskey and it's like one finger or something. Yeah. A lot of people drink it like that. I was unaware of this. I wonder if it's like a... Maybe a temperature thing. Oh, okay. Where like you just pour enough to drink it at its optimal. I don't fucking know. But she left the bottle out. Well, then I don't know. I pour a glass if I'm having wine.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. It's a choice. But my wine has bubbles in it, so I'm not very... I'm not quite cultured. But Rose approaches the wailing alarm. It's readout flashing red. But when she rounds the corner, the front door is closed. She checks the locks before finally turning off the alarm, but she heads back toward the dining room where she sees that the sliding glass door that she was just sitting in front of is cracked open.

She looks at this suspiciously, but she's startled again when her landline rings. When she answers it, it's a representative from First Line Security asking for her name and passcode. Rose's voice is trembling when she identifies herself and gives their passcode, Acapulco. We linger behind Rose's head as she reports that her back door is open and the representative asks if she's alone in the house.

Rose says that she is, and the woman on the other end responds, are you sure? Rose is like, what? The woman asks, are you sure you haven't let something inside, Rose? Look behind you. This is fucking terrifying. Yeah, dude. This was really cool. It is so scary. I think this entire sequence maybe is my favorite sequence in the film. It's really good. The way that it's executed and what follows. Yeah.

Rose lowers the phone from her ear and slowly turns to look toward us. But before she can fully turn around, the landline rings again. Rose looks over at it back in its cradle, lighting up with the incoming call. And when she looks down at the hand that was just holding it, it's empty. I love this so much. I love that we don't see Laura. We don't see that other figure. It's all just a figment of imagination.

Rose agonizes for a second before answering the phone. On the other end, a woman says, this is first line security. May I have your name and passcode? Rose looks confused and very afraid. Later, the outside of her house is lit up with the red and blue flicker of police cars. Rose waits outside until officers Chan and Wilkes, played by Shu Q and Chevy Gutierrez, come outside. What a house, by the way.

Oh my God. Yeah. My sister's talking to me about not making enough money or whatever. Yeah. I live in this fucking mansion. Yeah. I was, I felt a little less bad. Yeah. Whatever happens, happens. But the officers walk over to her and Chan reports that they've done a full sweep and it's all clear. Rose asks about the back door and Chan wonders if it's possible that it wasn't fully latched the last time it was closed.

Rose concedes maybe, but Wilkes tells her not to worry. False alarms happen all the time. And if anything else comes up, she can call them. Trevor pulls up as the officers are departing and when they greet him, he replies with the confused evening before turning to Rose and asking what happened.

Was it just me? And I know we've already talked about his line delivery, but it sounded like he was, that was an angry what happened, not a worried. No, it sounded annoyed. Yeah. There should be concern. Yeah. I pull up to the house and you're outside with cops.

Like... what the fuck happened i'm panicking yeah he's like you're crowding my yard yeah it's like um can we get to the bottom of that first babe i can't park here yeah this is my spot yeah i thought the same thing because he just like why don't I know about what's going on like that's what it felt like

But inside, Rose takes out a can of cat food and hits the fork against Mustache's bowl, calling for him when he doesn't come out. Trevor asks if there's a reason why she set the alarm as Rose transfers the food from the can to the bowl. She chuckles that she doesn't even remember doing it. She must have said it by accident. Leaning against the wall behind her, Trevor asks unbelievingly, by accident? I don't understand. Even if it's out of...

Maybe habit of what she normally does. Why he's giving the third degree that she had the alarm set when she's home alone at night. Yeah. Even if that's not something she normally does. She is. She's going through some shit. I think all that it's meant to do is it's just trying to say that she is acting paranoid. I think that's the only point of this.

I don't like it. No. Because it makes perfect sense to set the alarm when you're home alone at night. Yeah. Especially everything that. Yes. So I, it's just, I don't really. And honestly, this whole scene to me, they're engaged, but they're kind of acting like strange. Or roommates? Yeah. There is a disconnect. Like, I don't buy their relationship at all. Yeah, I kind of did when he came home.

And he was holding her and they were when he stuck up for her at dinner. But I kind of feel like that is the only time. from that point on in the film yeah no it's like do you do you even know her like do y'all know each other at all yeah But Rose apologizes. She explains that her head has been in this foggy, creepy, spacey place all day. There was a weird incident at work. She starts to say that Desai is making her take time off, but she stops herself.

She sets down the cat food and turns to face him, forcing a smile and assuring him that everything is okay. Trevor asks if she's sure and she insists that she's fine. She was just venting. Trevor resigns with an okay. Rose goes over and kisses him. She walks away asking if he can help find mustache because she hasn't seen him anywhere at all. Trevor sighs and starts into the kitchen but his eyes catch on something and he calls out to her.

Rose, did you break another glass? Look, okay. So we all miss mustache. That's yeah. But I think it was that moment for me. If you and your partner are having a conversation. you know a fake smile from a real smile. You know a forced everything is fine from things actually being fine. And he's just like, all right. I asked her twice.

just looking at my notes it's right here at this part and the only thing i have is does he even like her yeah i and and it is that you're right i think after him sticking up for her at dinner the rest of this it does feel different. Like he's just annoyed with her. And I'm like, I don't understand if you, I don't know again, cause we haven't seen it. And she has said, uh, about.

everything you know that happened at work i know she's not fully saying what she's experiencing but still that's enough for you to be worried not annoyed about things that yes you should be there hand and foot like oh god you went through some Scary shit. Uh-huh. I should be here for you. Yep. And I don't know. Maybe that's the intention. Maybe Trevor is just meant to be self-centered and kind of a dick. Yeah. Maybe. I don't know. I gotta say, he's making Joel look real good. Oh, yeah.

He went out of his way to go check on her. Just saying. He's like, have you fed mustache? Quit breaking classes. This is crazy. But later, Rose shakes dry food and mustache's bowl outside, calling his name and pleading with him to come out. She cries when there's no response or appearance of her cat. We linger on the lush trees outside of their home before fading to black. knowing that that back door was opened and now I can't, I would be fucking in a full blown panic. I'd be sobbing.

Our cat is an indoor cat. She does not go outside at all. But if it has been a couple hours and I have not seen her, I'm taking out the treat bag and being like, I'm looking like, and I know there is zero chance that she is not in the house. And I'm still freaking out. out a little because i haven't laid eyes on her this would devastate me oh yeah

But suddenly we are twisting in a circle as we travel down a hallway. When the door at the end is pushed open, we are back in mom's bedroom where she lies on the bed staring endlessly. We continue revolving in the. circle as we press in closer to her face, joining her as we did at the beginning of the film, staring at her vertically. But this time mom opens her mouth and takes in a desperate and ragged gasp.

And Rose wakes with a start in her own bed. She sits up gasping and panting for air. But when she looks at the other side of the bed, Trevor is still fast asleep. Okay. Thanks. I will say I did like this match cut of sound. Yes. Between both of them in bed. It worked very well for me. Later, she sits at the table with headphones on playing her brief encounter with Laura Weaver.

You can wait until the morning. Oh, my God. There is no reason. You know what? On the cool. I was like, oh, this is the next day. And then once we figure out where we're still at, I was like. oh this is night time Laura explains frantically that sometimes it pretends to be someone she knows. Sometimes it's a random stranger. Sometimes it's her grandfather who died in front of her when she was seven. But it's all the same thing.

Rose skips the audio forward to where Laura is describing that smile, not friendly, but the worst smile she's ever seen in her life, giving her this God awful feeling whenever she sees it like something really terrible. is about to happen. Rose watches the sound waves as Laura begins to scream frantically begging something unseen to get away. She listens to herself calling out for help before addressing Laura but in the ensuing silence she hears.

whisper so faint that it doesn't even register on the screen. Rose plays it back again and again and turns the volume up as loud as she can. When she did that, I was like, okay, bitch, get ready. I'm very susceptible to jump scares. When it passes over the whisper, she hears it faintly. Rose. She rewinds it again, leaning in intently, and we go between the screen and her eager face as the recording gets closer and closer to the whisper.

But instead of a whisper in her headphones, a seemingly dead woman appears next to her, screaming in her ear, Rose! You know, the cheat code for all of that is the second you see somebody turn up the volume in a horror movie, you turn yours down.

That's brilliant, actually. Because you're about to be fucked over on the sound design. Yeah. And I still jumped. Of course. And you know it's coming. Of course. I did appreciate that it wasn't still on the thing. I know this isn't an investigation or whatever, but... At least you could have been like, look, it was here, and then try to show somebody later, and then it's gone. Right. Here, it's just gone. Yeah.

Rose falls backwards out of her chair and scrambles back into the kitchen she stands and grabs a knife from the counter screaming as she backs against the wall This was a mirror to Laura. Falling back in her chair, scrambling away, grabbing something sharp.

Trevor comes running into the room, panicking when Rose thrusts the knife toward him. He stands on the other side of the kitchen, telling her to put it down. When she looks back at him, her eyes are wild and frantic. Trevor claps his hands, yelling.

her name but the next morning dr madeline northcott played by robin weigert enters a building i'm obligated to say of course i remember this woman from an episode csi is that is tattooed on my brain and she also worked in a psych ward oh yeah she's done a lot of tv yeah yeah i think i remember her on sons of anarchy okay But she strides through the lobby. Just as she starts to unlock her door, someone calls out to her. It's Rose, sitting uneasily on a long staircase.

Northcott is surprised to see her, but we cut to them sitting in her office. Rose explains to her that it wasn't so much the blood, it was her face, the look she had. Northcott asks how that made her feel, and Rose fiddles nervously with her hands as she answers. Terrified, obviously, but vulnerable and guilty, too. Northcott questions this last feeling. Guilty?

Rose explains that Laura was her patient, but Northcott provides the context that Laura was a disturbed young woman who Rose had only met 10 minutes prior. Rose chuckles at this but admits that she's gotten stuck on it. She can't get it out of her head. Northcott proposes that the reason Rose is stuck on it could actually be more about her own mother's suicide.

This gives Rose pause. She gives no reply. But when Northcott asks if Rose still blames herself, she puts up a boundary, expressing that she is not trying to relitigate that part of her life right now. Northcott is confused, but still patient when she asks Rose what she would like to talk about. Rose admits that she was hoping she could get a script for Risperdal.

Northcott's expression is stoic but she offers no words and Rose is forced to explain. Ever since what happened that day she's been seeing and hearing things but she's sure it's a symptom of post-trauma. Northcott warns her to avoid self diagnosis. She wants to know what Rose has been seeing and hearing.

Rose struggles to admit that it's echoes of what happened with the patient. Fleeting moments of stress induced hallucinations that feel so corporeal and unsettling when they're happening. But Northcott counters that from where she's sitting, Rose doesn't seem to. delusional or disordered to her and certainly not psychotic. She believes that what happened with this patient triggered old anxieties compounded by too much stress and not enough sleep.

She says gently that Rose has wounds that have never fully healed. And they may never. That's the nature of trauma. But she can learn to get control over it. Rose starts to cry and Northcott asks if she's still been seeing patients while she's been dealing with this. Rose says that she's not. She's taking a short hiatus, and Northcott commends that that's good. Her advice to Rose is to use this time to do something different, anything that will take her mind off the stress-causing triggers.

She adds that she thinks resuming their regular sessions would be helpful as well. Rose only contemplates for a moment before nodding and agreeing. Sure. But she's like, so what about that Risperdal though? Northcott decides that they should talk again next week before deciding on medication. The disappointment is apparent on Rose's face and Northcott reminds her that in the meantime, she can always call her.

Rose agrees. Sure. I think the fact that she is a mental health professional and that she is asking for this very specific antipsychotic medication. Yeah. I feel like. I would have I don't know, maybe more concern instead of trying to explain it away as what I think it could be. Yeah. I don't know. I get that. I can see both sides though, especially if they don't see each other anymore and she knows that Rose has unresolved trauma.

that directly relates to this traumatic thing that just happened. I can see how she's like, you, you're triggered. Like. But by the same token, I don't know. You can't be your own doctor. No. Yeah. She came there immediately. Exactly. Which is not a good. She's like, this is what I've diagnosed myself with. This is what you need to prescribe me. Like, it's like, I can understand why Northcott would be like. slow down yeah this is something that we still need you still need to work through

But if she had come to me before, she had never told me anything about seeing and hearing things. This is all new. So, I mean, I don't know. It's obviously gotten to a point that is... larger than it was when we were seeing each other right but i will agree it's not a good look too immediately no

But at home, Rose applies concealer beneath her eyes. She blends it out with her finger before practicing a smile. She stares back at her own reflection before the expression falters and the smile drops from her face. Oh, no. Yeah. Sidebar, where is Trevor? Yeah. He didn't want to come. Oh, okay. This is when I noticed Holly is always in pink. Right now, Rose is always in blue. I love shit like that when you're associating a color with a character.

And when I watched that making of, there was some interesting things that the costume designer had to say. Okay. But we'll talk about that. Okay. Holly is surprised that her sister was able to make it and she ushers her inside. Once inside, she says that she thought Rose had to work. Rose starts to explain that she decided to take the afternoon off, but Holly interrupts her, taking the gift out of her hands.

Greg comes out carrying a platter of sandwiches with one in his mouth. Holly snaps at him. She told him not to take those out yet. Greg walks backwards back the way. She takes Rose over to a group of her friends, tasking them with showing her sister to the refreshments. Stephanie, played by Sarah Kappner, is excited to meet her, realizing that she's the therapist.

She whisks her away from the rest of the group to the stash in the kitchen, immediately wondering if she can ask for advice. Great. Yeah, I bet that gets so old. Yeah, I'm not supposed to be doing this on my break. Yeah. But sure. What do you do for a living? Can you do it for free for me right now? Right now. I was like a party trick or something.

Later, the entire group sings happy birthday to Jackson, played by Matthew Lamb, who beams behind his cake with its high sparkling candle. We pan over to Rose, who stands in the group with her arms crossed, forcing a smile as she sings. with them but the group's harmonizing draws out and fades away giving way to a frantic score that takes over part of me loved the fuck out of this

Another part of me thought we took a trip to Duff Gardens. I'll have a Duff. Duff. Duff. And I couldn't stop laughing. Both things were equally scary. We cut to Jackson ripping the paper away from a giant toy gun. He holds it up, giving an excited gracias to Harper and Harper's mom. Rose sits in a nearby chair, smiling as she watches. Next, Jackson grabs Rose's gift from the huge pile. And before he can take the paper away, Holly tells him that that's from his aunt Rose with a big.

smile he gives rose two thumbs up and she returns the gesture he peels the yellow paper back to reveal a box for the kearney model railroad shop He flips the box open and rustles through the tissue paper inside, glancing up excitedly. But the smile drops from his face when he opens the paper. The first time I saw this, I was full body fucking cringing. Holly asks what he got and Jackson reaches inside the box and with an ominous thrum of the score, he pulls out Mustache's limp.

body heartbroken devastated and you flash back and you remember yep when yeah all of it The party guests react with panic and Greg hurries over to grab Jackson away. Crying and denying that this is happening, Rose goes over too and cradles Mustache, positive that this can't be happening. Holly demands to know what is wrong with her and we get a close-up of the caller revealing to everyone doubting that it is indeed.

Mustache. We didn't need that. It was actually a different cat. It's like, why? We've known one cat the whole time. And that cat is missing. Yeah. Sobbing and looking at the guests clustered around her, Rose swears that this wasn't her. She begs for them to please fucking believe me. But after scanning the faces in the crowd, she sees Stephanie. sitting alone in a chair next to a very frightened little girl.

Her head is tilted downward, but she is smiling right at Rose. Rose demands to know, what the fuck are you? Leave me the fuck alone. She tells everyone that they see her. They have to see her. She pleads with her sister, but she gets no help from Holly. The guests look at her in shock and horror, and when Rose faces forward, Stephanie is right there, grinning in her face.

Rose stumbles backward losing her footing and crashing right through the glass coffee table. Holly stares at this trembling with rage. When Rose sits up she's no longer holding mustache. She looks down at her arms.

which are stuck with glass, cut and bleeding profusely. After a moment, she lets loose a frantic and agonized scream. I have to say, this is... awful what just happened here yes but there is something about her falling backwards into that glass table that looks hilarious yeah i thought it was a bit like slapstick it is it was it was overkill to me yeah because it's like

This can't be worse. This can't go any worse. And you've ruined their furniture? Yeah. God damn, Rose. Yeah, I didn't like this. I'm going to be honest. None of it? I do understand. And I guess her being helpless. Nobody wants to help her or whatever. Yeah. That's your sister.

Again, I understand even if we have a strained relationship, that's my sibling. Hey, dude, chill out. You're scaring everybody. Hey, you're at my kid's, you know what I mean? My kid's birthday. Why are you not doing it? Why is everybody looking at you crazy and you're not even...

if you fall i just fell into your coffee table you're not gonna help me and she's like fucked up like she's bleeding and i think the other thing as well is it's like look you only grew up with me yeah do you think that there is a world in which i would

do this yeah that i would package this gift yeah and you're like what have you done what's wrong with you you believe you've invited me to the party and you think do something like that but we get more context but it's also fucking sorry yeah no yeah it's heavy-handed as shit yeah dude Everybody simmer down.

We cut to Rose in a hospital exam room. She looks at the sign on the wall marked with a pain assessment tool. Ten is the worst pain possible, marked with an ailing red face, but zero is no pain. by a cool blue face smiling back at her. She stares at this, her mascara smeared under her eyes and her dress streaked with blood. Desai comes in worried, but when she sees him, she mutters,

Fuck. Desai explains that he heard she was brought into the ER and he wanted to check on her and see how she was doing. Unconvincingly, Rose answers that she's fine. It was just an accident, but thank you. Desai says that he was told Rose had an anxiety attack.

I don't think he should have been told that. I was going to say, I don't know how he has any of this information. Yeah. Well, maybe he has. No, but he shouldn't be looking at our records either. Yeah, no, this is bad all the way around. No matter how he found out. He confesses that as her friend, he's concerned. He thinks that she should speak to someone. But Rose is looking out into the hallway where a frantic Holly is briefing a newly arrived Trevor.

I did see in the making of they were talking with the actress that plays Holly and they were showing like clips of her. during filming and I saw a little piece for a second where she is in the hospital room talking to Rose and clearly it was cut or whatever and it wasn't in the deleted scenes but I would have liked to see what that conversation was yeah I think it is kind of necessary Yeah.

Desai asks if she's seeing anyone professionally right now, and Rose continues to watch her sister and her fiancé. Holly is growing furious, and although her words can't be heard, her emphatic body language and the points that she thrusts at Trevor are enough... to get her point across to rose when desai asks rose if she's listening his voice is muffled and far away we press in on that blue smiling face on the pain assessment tool marking no pain

It's nighttime when Trevor drives them back home. They sit in silence, but when he starts to get out of the car, Rose implores him to wait. She says that she has to tell him something, but she prefaces it with the fact that she is not crazy. Trevor nods and says, okay. Rose finally admits that something is happening to her. She concedes that it's going to be really hard for him to believe, but Trevor proposes that they just go inside.

Rose's reaction is swift. She leans over him and slams his door, demanding that he listen to her. When he looks at her in shock and fear, she immediately apologizes. She tries to start again. Something is threatening her. Maybe an evil spirit or an energy. She doesn't know what it is, but she thinks it killed her.

patient because she was describing the exact thing that Rose is experiencing and now it's attached itself to her she admits that she's just really scared that something bad is gonna happen Trevor just stares at her, pressing himself back in his seat as far away from her as he can get. When he is silent, she pleads with him to say something. But Trevor is like, what do you want me to say?

crying, but trying to remain calm. She shares that she just wants him to believe her. Trevor points out that she's talking about a fucking ghost, but she denies this. It's not a ghost. It's something else. Trevor apologizes before admitting that he can't. Before getting out of the car, he tells her that he cannot fucking do this right now. He starts toward the house, but Rose gets out and chases after him, pleading with him. She begs him not to walk away. He's not listening to what she's saying.

Trevor wonders what the fuck he's supposed to give as a response. He asks if she can hear herself because she sounds crazy. Rose yells that she is not crazy before quickly apologizing. Right. Here's the thing for me with Trevor. Yeah. I cannot fucking do this right now.

Who are you? Yeah. Like, I don't even know anything that you're going through to say that you're super stressed at work or that you have so much going on. Yeah. This is just another thing that you can't even. I don't know anything about you. Yeah. To where I can make an excuse for why you are unable to support your partner right now. It's just it's just a weird behavior. Yeah. And if it is.

And I'm sure there's... Well, he's supposed to come off that way. It doesn't come off as a... like concern or like i don't know maybe in an it just comes off like what are you doing with her you're just here just to be a mean dude or to not care about her but at the beginning of the movie you were yeah and now you've

gotta switch to this other like way i don't know i don't know it's just weird it's hard to describe you know what i mean his character is not great no i i saw in an interview that he said when he first read the script he thought that trevor was very

like selfish and neglectful. And then he was like, and then working with Parker Finn and then finding the character and kind of doing work with Sozie. He was like, I see that it's helplessness. It's desperation. I'm like, no, you're still fucking selfish and neglectful.

Yeah, I don't really see that. No. I mean, I get the helplessness, but it's like it's in it's not in a way where you're like desperate. Like I'm frustrated because I want to help you and you won't let me. It's like, oh, you're really fucking up my vibe right now. That's what it feels like. Yeah.

I saw in that same interview that they said when they were filming this scene, somebody called the police. Really? Yeah. I think they thought people were really fighting out there. Oh, well, God damn. Yeah. But Trevor realizes it's genetic, isn't it? Rose is shocked, but Trevor explains that you can inherit mental illness from a parent. He looked it up. Rose wants to know why he would look that up.

And Trevor tells her because he wanted to see what he was potentially hitching his entire life to. Is that so fucking unfair? there are no words my jaw dropped yeah this would be it whether this thing gets me or not we are not to get like somebody that would fucking say that to me we're not together this is this is it

Yeah, that's pretty bogus. And what are you missing? Yeah. It's not like you had a supportive partner helping you through this. Yeah. Like go it alone. This is that it was so fucking disgusting to say. That Joel guy seems kind of nice. I agree. Especially right now. Yeah. Comparatively. Hell, Dr. Desai. Anybody. Anybody at this point.

Rose sobs, but Trevor insists that he's going in the house. Rose grabs his arm to stop him, pleading that she's in danger, but he asks her point blank, did you kill mustache? Rose is emphatic that she didn't. That wasn't her. Trevor wants to know what happened to him then. And when Rose starts to say that it was the thing, he backs away from her. Rose begs him to stay, but Trevor leaves her alone.

In the bathroom, she stares at her reflection. Her eyes are red and her expression is agonized. She tries to wipe the tears away, but she stops to look down at her bandaged forearms. The bloody sleeves of her cardigan pushed up to make room for. them. When she looks back up at her reflection the tears are coming again.

She looks in on Trevor who was asleep on the couch before getting into bed with her laptop. I was like, you mother fuck. I was, I'm mad. That's wild as fuck. That is. But at least he wasn't like Homer and he's like, I understand if you want to sleep on the couch. That's true. The other thing that I was thinking is that we are coming home from the hospital and she is injured.

Yes. And he did not help her in the slightest. Of course not. With anything that she had to do. He just went fucking to sleep on the couch. He can't fucking do this right now. Right now. She opens her laptop and starts typing, pulling up the police report again. She looks it over before Googling the professor, Gabriel Munoz, St. Agatha College.

The results are fruitful, even earning her a picture of the professor, played by Felix Melendez Jr., and she scans over one of the headlines, St. Agatha College Professor Ends Life in Front of Student. Rose hears her name whispered and her head snaps in the direction of the open bathroom door. Its pitch blackness gazes back at her as another whisper is heard. Come here.

Rose slowly closes her laptop and turns off the bedside lamp surrendering to the darkness of the room as she lies down beneath the blankets. As a child cries a woman's voice croaks out for help telling Rose that she made a mistake. Rose turns over in bed putting her back to the open bathroom door as she whimpers squeezing her eyes shut but someone is unmistakably standing in the doorway.

absolutely terrifying visual yes and I gotta say Rose is the most courageous person I've ever met in my entire life I'm saying that was wild there's no way you got me so fucked up no light is going off in this house ever again no The hearing of a voice is not a prompt to turn the light off. Well, that's my cue. You guys have been a great audience. No.

Her name is screamed again as we cut to her nearly being hit by a car on the street. She gasps as the car stops short. It's drivers screaming at her to watch where she's going and calling her crazy. When Rose steps away from the road, tires squeal as the car pulls away. She walks up to a house and nervously knocks on the door. A woman answers and looks up at her cautiously. When Rose calls her Mrs. Munoz, Victoria Munoz, played by Judy Reyes, looks her up and down.

Judy Reyes. She was in Scrubs. Yes. She loves that show. Devious Maids in Succession. I love Succession. Okay. I love Judy Reagan. Inside the house, we glide over framed photos of Victoria and her husband to find Victoria and Rose sitting at the dining room table.

Victoria shares that she first noticed small changes in her husband but then it all happened so fast. She says that he was on edge and paranoid. He'd wake up screaming in the middle of the night when she had never even heard him scream before.

but then he stopped sleeping completely she says that she would catch him having conversations with himself he was seeing things and doing strange things that he didn't remember she continues tearfully that one morning he was just gone the police called her that night and said that he was dead they asked her to identify his body

We jarringly cut to a blanket being pulled from a table at the morgue. Professor Gabriel Munoz's eyes are swollen shut. His nose is bent unnaturally to one side. His teeth are smashed in. Half of his mouth gates.

and ruined and his tongue lolls out of his broken jaw at the table now Victoria takes in a sharp breath as she sobs his face this moment was incredibly successful for me me too the jarring visual and her performance yeah yeah it is so good it's so fucking sad too and then because i feel like when we see this in a lot of films it's like

Like, oh, 20 years ago, this happened with blah, blah. This was like fucking two weeks ago. This was like a week and a half ago. Like, it's terrible. It's raw. Yes. Rose looks on with sympathy as Victoria cries that after 25 years of marriage, that's what she has left to remember him. Rose offers her sincere apologies, but Victoria sniffles and wipes her eyes before taking a drink from her mug.

Rose takes this opportunity to ask if Gabriel ever described the things that he was seeing. And after a pregnant pause, Victoria offers to show her. They walk into Gabriel's workspace, where the walls of the room are adorned with multiple drawings and paintings of his. Victoria admits that she should take this all down, but she can't stand being in here.

Rose slowly walks over to the wall and looks at the pictures, distorted smiles, people ripping their own faces apart. This is one of my favorite sets in the entire film. I heard on commentary Finn had talked about the character of Professor Munoz. And said that he had decided that he would be an art history professor. Yeah. And so he worked with the production designer and the art director to find historical pieces to put in this room. Oh, wow. As well as creating pieces for.

the room that were meant to have been created by Munoz okay and so to me I thought it was really cool because it's almost as if Munoz himself had started researching a little bit yeah yeah and was maybe trying to find like through history through his field of expertise this like entity this phenomenon and also trying to channel through his own creativity what he is seeing too yeah process yes it's just a fantastic set

Yeah, the drawings look really cool. I want to see that. Whatever's going on in those paintings, that's what I want to see. They're fucking scary, man. They're really cool. Victoria draws her attention to Gabriel's desk, indicating that this is what he said he was seeing. There are multiple drawings of smiling people, a grinning monster shrouded in shadow, a portrait, completely black except for the scar of a smiling mouth, the white teeth biting through the darkness.

Victoria shares that Gabriel said it was trying to get inside him. She points to the drawing of a grinning man with glasses and explains that he was Gabriel's brother who died in an accident 20 years ago. We look closer at the picture, streaked with red, bulging crimson eyes staring at us behind the lenses of glasses. Victoria says that Gabriel never got over the loss.

Rose asks how long this had been going on Victoria said that it was ever since he got back from a conference he goes to every year this was all because he saw that awful woman kill herself Rose stares at her as Victoria dismisses that no one reports on that part. Rose questions, Gabriel watched someone die by suicide?

Victoria says that he did, and she assumed that Rose knew that. Rose wants to know the woman's name, but a little suspicious now. Victoria says that she doesn't know. She'll have to find it. Rose starts to walk away from the widow, wondering if Gabriel ever said why all of this was happening. Did he ever find an explanation? Instead of answering, Victoria asks, what kind of reporter are you?

Rose tries to explain that Gabriel wasn't insane. The things that he was seeing were real because she's seen them. Victoria asks what Rose is, a fucking nutcase, some kind of fanatic. She asks, how fucking dare you? She starts toward Rose, who backs away toward the door. She pleads with Victoria, explaining quickly that what was happening to Gabriel is happening to her. Victoria points toward the front door, telling Rose firmly to get out of her house now.

Rose begs her for a name, but instead Victoria screams at her, get the fuck out of my house. Look, I have to be honest. I expected there would be a turnaround sometime later in the film that Victoria does end up helping Rose somehow after what her husband experienced and everything. We never see Victoria again.

She said, get the fuck out of my house. And that's it. Yeah. I was surprised. I did want to point out something that I saw. She is wearing a red necklace that it is like layers on top of each other. smile shaped oh okay and it does kind of foreshadow a visual that we see later on in the film yeah and i thought it was really clever i thought it was a really cool kind of easter egg kind of yeah yeah

I was confused, though, because if I'm coming here telling you that I believe you or believe your husband, what happened? Why are you getting this angry and telling me to leave? Like, I'm not sitting here. It doesn't sound like I'm mocking you. It doesn't sound like I'm making. You know what I mean? She did lie. She did lie, but I think it was for a well-ish reasoned approach. For herself. It was. But at the same time, yeah. That's fucking important.

But she is. She's saying this peculiar behavior that you witnessed yourself and your husband. Yeah. And she didn't think that he was what people were making him out to be. Yeah. And so she's telling, I agree with you. Yeah. But we cut to Rose walking nervously down the street, glancing around and chewing on her nails. She sits for a moment thinking in her car before turning the key and starting the engine.

She walks briskly down a hallway but pauses at a door. She fixes her hair and pulls the sleeves of her coat over the bandages on her arms before finally knocking. When the door opens, it's Joel inside. He looks her up and down, confused before greeting her. Instead of saying anything, Rose walks past Joel into his apartment. He stands for a moment, muttering a sarcastic, come on in before closing the door and following her inside.

I will say that she was given more than enough information to find all this stuff by herself. So she doesn't really need to go. But I do appreciate it because she needs help of some kind. Trevor is nothing. She has no one. So at least. he can be of some kind of assistance right i was noticing because she goes her palette is very blue and it becomes like more brown

As the film goes on, they didn't really talk about color, which surprised me because it was really something that stood out to me. But the costume designer, Alexis Forte, said that they wanted wardrobe to reflect character. And so like what they're going through at the moment. And so you think back to how.

polished and hair in a tight bun and buttoned down shirts and shirts tucked in that we saw rose when we met her and now she is a little more disheveled a little more they said almost dressing for a yearning for any semblance of comfort in her clothing okay and it is you do see this transition through the film and i just thought it was really cool Rose stands facing the window with her back to Joel, but he is patient, leaning quietly against his kitchen counter.

Finally, Rose turns around, attempting to chuckle nonchalantly that he finally got rid of that ugly yellow couch. That's interesting. Joel nods that he did and is like, so? What's up? He reasons that she's probably not here to catch up after the cold shoulder she gave him the other day. Rose sits down on the couch, finally admitting to him that she needs a favor.

Joel laughs in disbelief, but Rose continues that she needs him to not ask any questions about the favor she needs. That's a lot. Yeah. What the hell? That's difficult. And the cold shoulder. Yeah. Yeah, you did. Joel quips that that's terrific. Let's hear that Rose starts at the top. Nine days ago, a man named Gabriel Munoz killed himself. She needs to know if he was involved in any other police reports recently. She asks if he can find that out for her.

Joel asks if she's serious. He points out that this is his one day off and he invites her to go to the station. Rose asks him sincerely, please. And he sighs before agreeing. He grabs his laptop before joining her on the opposite end of the couch. He gets Gabriel's name from her again before typing it into the database. Joel finds the report on Gabriel's death and then an incident report from an upstate precinct.

When Rose asks what it's for, he details that Munoz gave a witness statement. He was staying at a hotel where a woman died by suicide. Rose asks what the name of the woman was, and after looking at her suspiciously, Joel shares that her name was Angela Powell. She was a real estate agent. I have to say, too, Kyle Gallner is really masterful and so much nuance.

Faces that he makes ways that he looks at her even like ways that he's like uncomfortably kind of shifting. He's just he's really good at making. Joel feel like a real person that is experiencing this and he's uneasy and he's a little suspicious. He does these quiet acting moments that are just really good. Yeah, he's just too willing to help. He has a soft spot. He does.

Peering closer on the computer screen, Joel asks what something is. He clicks on it and winces, turning his face away and muttering, fuck. Of course, Rose wants to know what it is. Joel says that it's a picture of the scene and Rose demands to see. Joel denies her, saying that she doesn't want to see it and reminding her that it's evidence. But when she just snatches the computer away, he relents or just, you know, have at it.

Rose gasps when she lays eyes on the photo of Angela Powell, played by Ann Schmalz again. She is slumped in a corner, her face gray, the walls around her and her clothing streaked with blood. Her eyes are gouged out. When Rose reacts fearfully, Jules points out that he told her it was gross. Sniffling, Rose puts the laptop to the side and gets to her feet. She tells Joel that this time she wants him to do the same search he did on Gabriel, but to do it on Angela.

Joel demands that she tell him now what this is about. Rose tells Joel that he said he wouldn't ask her any questions, but he corrects her. She said that he wouldn't ask any questions. I'm like, dude, you can't do that. She just tells Joel that she needs his help. When she whispers a sincere please, Joel is hesitant, but he can't help but do what she asks.

He types into his laptop and is puzzled with the results. He says that there was another report four days before her death. He adds that it's a weird coincidence she was also interviewed about a suicide. Rose goes back to the couch and sits directly next to him causing Joel to look over at her but she doesn't notice. She's looking at a video on the screen and when she asks about it Joel tells her that it's security footage. She implores him to put it on.

but he assures her, slightly annoyed, that it's already loading. We watch the footage with them. At a gas station, Angela Powell is looking down at her phone as she gases up her vehicle. A man crosses the parking lot, but when he sees her, he pauses. After a lingering look, he goes to the back of a work truck and plucks out a pair of hedging shears. He walks over to Angela, who finally looks up from her phone.

He raises the shears up high before plunging them into his own chest. Blood explodes from him, painting the hood of Angela's car. She cowers against the pump, backing away from the man who promptly collapses to the ground. dead real quick real quick before we go on all right

Why the fuck was he holding the laptop like that with his hand right in there? Dude, there is something with movies where people just have a lack of respect for their laptops. That's crazy as fuck. They didn't pay for it. Yeah, clearly. It's frustrating. Yeah. But no, I understand. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Sorry. No, you're good. I was so funny. I thought it as I was watching it, but I didn't write that down. I think we all thought it. I was like, God damn, dude.

But this video is unbelievable. Yeah. And all it's doing is just creating this lore and this chain reaction of everything. How far back are we actually going? Yeah. It's creating more questions than answers, which I love sometimes. Oh yeah. But I do like that. I like this aspect of like a chain letter situation. Like I said at the top, it's something that is very intriguing to me and it's like going down a rabbit hole. Yeah. And you know that all this.

is doing is just piquing the interest of joel i i think that also the how striking the video is to watch yeah And I will say we do discover something in a moment that does lend to all the stuff that we've seen already. I feel like maybe that should have been more for us than somebody just telling it. But I do like this section. Yeah.

Joel and Rose react in horror and disgust, and Joel points out that his day was going just fine. Rose tells him to rewind it, and he's in disbelief, but he does it anyway. We watch as the man gets back up, takes the shears out of his chest. The blood pools back from the hood, and he walks backwards to the truck. Rose tells Joel to pause it and he does, just as the man is taking the shears out of the truck bed. With the footage frozen, we see the wide smile on his face. And Joel asks,

Is he smiling? Thought he might be. I think that should have been enough. I would have liked to press in on that. Yeah. Yeah. You know, we know what a smile is. Rose's eyes are brimming with tears when she turns away from the laptop, stricken speechless. Finally, Joel has to ask, who are these people? But Rose's eyes are flitting back and forth as she processes what she's learned. She blinks, spilling a tear down her cheek as she tells Joel in a whisper that she has to go.

She gets to her feet, ignoring Joel when he asks her where she's going. What's going on? He admits that he is so confused right now. All right, look. I... It's one of the pet peeves that we talk about from time to time where it's very clear that a writer has written for all the characters. Yeah. And it isn't a matter of like a bunch of characters having a different way of speaking like, you know, in human life. Right. It's Kurt Zetter syndrome. Yes, but literally...

I've heard the phrase right now way too many times in this film. Well, buckle up. Yeah. Because it's about to get... And when is it going to happen? Right now. As we press in on the circular window behind her, Rose asks Joel for just one more favor. Do you have a printer?

We peer through the window to find Rose driving down a road before she pulls in at her house. She gathers a stack of paperwork from the police department from the passenger seat before heading inside. You gave her all that fucking evidence? He did. Hey, does that make that a research scene just before? Yes, I'll count it. It was a little loose, but I'll count it.

When she enters her house, she immediately calls out for Trevor. And I will say when she's standing in the doorway, there's a piece of mail on the little end table next to the door that says last chance. Huh. Which is interesting. But when she enters the living room, she freezes, finding that Trevor is not alone. Sitting on the couch next to him is Dr. Northcott. The doctor greets her warmly, but Rose demands to know what this is. She asks Trevor what the doctor is doing here.

Northcott tries to explain that she just wanted to see how Rose was doing, but Rose interrupts, pointing out that she was talking to her fiancé. Northcott acquiesces with a silent nod, and Trevor admits that he called her. Rose looks at him with betrayal. She asks why, and Trevor explains that she's been acting completely unhinged. Northcott bristles at his choice of words, but Trevor continues that he didn't know what else to do.

Rose is in disbelief. She reminds Trevor that she came to him, the person that she's supposed to trust more than anyone else in the world. She confided in him that she was scared to death, that she needed him and he didn't listen to a word she said. Trevor asks why she thinks he even called Northcott. He starts to say that he was trying to help her but Rose interrupts that that's not true. All he's trying to do is make it to where he doesn't have to deal with it.

She says that Trevor is fine as long as everything is fine and agreeable. But that changes when things get difficult. That's when all he can do is think about how it's going to fuck up his perfect little life plan. And since, I guess, because emotional range isn't great here. Trevor's asking if she is serious right now. When? Right now.

When Rose insists that she is, Trevor wonders that if that's how she feels, why are they even together? An interesting line reading there. But Rose can do nothing but shrug and admit that maybe she doesn't know. Northcott proposes that everyone take a deep breath but Rose has another proposition. Why doesn't Northcott just fucking make herself at home? She turns to leave. And when Trevor asks if she's actually leaving right now, I'm not kidding. No, that's it's there.

The answer she gives him is slamming the front door on her way out right now. We cut to her frantically ringing the doorbell of another house and knocking on the door. When it opens, Greg greets her wanting to know what she's doing here. Rose wants to see her sister, but Greg warns that he doesn't think that's a good idea. When she demands that Greg let her talk to her fucking sister, Greg is like,

You're really going to come over here and talk to me like that? That did make me laugh because it's like, dude, this is my house. But Holly is hovering behind him and Rose calls out to her, asking if they can talk for just one second. Again, Greg cautions that he doesn't think this is such a good idea, but Holly looks sadly at her sister. She tells her husband that it's fine. And when he continues to protest, she tells him to go the fuck inside. And go the fuck inside, he does.

Rose anxiously prepares herself and Holly is hesitant when she asks how she is. But Rose assures her that she's got it figured out now. Her eyes are open. She's been cursed. Now, I feel like this wasn't the way to start this. Nope. No, we often talk about this. Yeah, it's the delivery. Holly is like, okay.

She closes the front door and crosses her arms as Rose continues. Or she's wrapped up in a curse. She got it from her patient. When the patient died she transferred it to Rose. Now she's being threatened by an entity. Holly repeats these last words with an uneasy nod, but Rose insists, it's what killed mustache and it was at the party yesterday too, but Holly just couldn't see it. Nobody can see it except for Rose.

And you really realize how quickly all of this is happening when she says the party yesterday. Yeah. But I mean, you think about it, the same thing with Laura. Yes. And Munoz. Yes. Holly whispers, Jesus Christ, and Rose concedes that she knows it's hard to believe. It was even hard for her to believe at first, but she wants her to look at something. She presents her with the crime scene photo of Angela Powell.

slumped in a corner with her eyes gouged out. Again, we talk about the delivery. Yes! Start with the police reports. Start with Laura. She's like, look at this shit. Yes! Like, dude, don't fucking shock jock me. Like, god damn. Holly's eyes bulge in horror and she shoves the file away, demanding to know why the fuck Rose has that. But Rose explains that this is evidence that it happened to other people and they're all dead. And now she's going to be next.

Holly puts her foot down. She tells her sister that curses aren't real and her voice wavers when she suggests that Rose is having a breakdown. Rose denies this and says that Holly just isn't hearing her. But starting to cry now, Holly points out that this is exactly what happened to their mom. And Rose sounds just like her. This hits Rose, and after taking a moment for the words to wash over her, she fires back with a few of her own. And how the fuck would you know that?

Holly is taken aback, but Rose reminds her that she was never around when their mother got bad. She wonders where the fuck Holly was when their mom died. But Holly points out that because she's older, she got the worst of their mother. She had to leave.

the house it was the only way she could survive crying she says that she's sorry that she left rose alone and that she was the one to find her she knows that it fucked rose up and it's not fair but she's tried so hard to move on with her life and leave all of that behind her

Rose starts to cry too when Holly confronts her with the fact that she can't accept that their mother lost her mind and took her own life. Rose has let it define her whole life and she wants to punish Holly because she doesn't want to do the same thing. But Rose counters that she's trying to help people instead of being like Holly, a fucking stay-at-home PTA housewife that lives in her own self-centered, smug little bubble.

With the words between them, the sisters stand in a stunned silence. In a whisper, Rose admits that she doesn't know why she said that, but Holly is done. She steps back toward the front door, refusing to do this with Rose. tells her that she's traumatized Jackson and Holly can't have her around when she's like this. Holly walks inside and closes the door behind her, leaving Rose alone on the porch, soaking in the aftermath of the disastrous conversation.

With nothing left to do she heads back to her car and slams the door. Rose closes her eyes and tries to steady her breathing, but out of focus through her window, Holly comes out of the house. She briskly heads down the walkway to the car and knocks on Holly's window. The only thing in view is her pink sweater when Rose opens her eyes and gasps. She says her sister's name, but Holly suddenly braces herself, planting both hands on Rose's window.

Her head drops into frame at the end of an unnatural elastic net. hanging upside down her blonde hair falling in a curtain and a smile on her upside down lips rose screams but when we see from outside the car there is no one there She continues to scream and sob, banging on the steering wheel in front of her and we pan out to see that Jackson is watching her fearfully from his window. Jackson shouldn't have to see that.

Jackson should have been told to go somewhere deep in the house. Very wild to me. Where's his father? Greg's pouting. Told me to go the fuck inside. I'm going to be honest. I did like the little head drop thing. I was like, that's pretty cool. My only problem with what's going on here, I don't like the... mom was crazy so you're crazy thing it's like dude come on really that's what it is and i mean i i know we've we

figure out some lore later or whatever in the story. But I feel like that's kind of shitty of you to... To put that on me, I kind of say that. You know what I mean? If we both went through that and we both, of course, have different experiences because we're different people, but you understand what I went through. I know what you went through. That's really how you're going to come at me, dude?

Even if we don't like each other, I'm clearly here for help. Yeah, it's rough. Yeah, you're just like, you're never going to see me again. Uh-huh. Yeah. And I don't think we do. Nope. I feel I don't know. There's just something about these sections that are just kind of like heavy handed and a little cliche and just not. It's a little heavy. Yeah. I'll give you that. I feel like it's for me is the takeaway and it's the commentary of.

her struggle her whatever is going on with her triggering holly and her just shutting it down and it is sad because i you're right this is it yeah this is a wrap on holly yeah So it's sad, but I think that there is a statement in that about losing your support system and losing people close to you. And that is what is happening to her person by person.

I will say, though, if I if I came to you for help and then you did that like twisty head shit, I wouldn't come back either. I wouldn't either. But if you came. to me for help I'd be like you're fucking cursed dude what are we doing oh my god you got the chain letter thing yeah dude we gotta share it on my space in the bulletins and then put a sorry at the bottom yeah Yeah.

But we drop from the blue and red neon of a diner's sign to find Rose sitting in the parking lot. It's night now, and the lights above bathe Rose, her vehicle, and the parking lot in a red light. technically making Smile 2022 a Giallo film. I'm exhausted. I knew when I seen the red light. I was afraid. I was like, please let me just be distracted by this delicious all-American diner. Because I know I am.

It's so funny that you said that because as I was writing this one, I was like, I wonder if they see it. With them taking their notes and they're like, this bitch. I was just crossing my fingers. Just trying to keep y'all educated. But we only hear the low, intense tones of the score. But she sits sobbing behind the wheel. Suddenly, we cut to her absolutely fucking up a burger and onion rings. And now I'm hungry. Yeah, I know. It looked really good. I get it. What is this for? I don't know.

I will say we're the suggestible type when it comes to that stuff. I did hear on commentary that she did not eat lunch that day on purpose. This took three takes to do. So I guess Parker Finn really wanted it. But I did. I was thinking the same thing. I was like, dude, we're even. going no pun intended we're going ham on the sound design yeah yeah like we're making it like with fucking foley work to make sure that this sandwich sounds delicious yeah and it did it did but what is it

Yeah. Why is it here? She's worked up an appetite. She needs fuel to get through the rest of this film. But she sets her food to the side when her phone rings. It's Joel strolling through a parking lot and demanding to know why Rose didn't tell him about her patient's connection to the other victims. Rose is confused, but Joel explains that he kept digging even after she left.

He's found 20 cases with 19 suicide victims with a direct line linking them all together. And he's disturbed by the things these people are doing to themselves. Rose points out that he said 20 cases but only 19 suicides. But Joel says that one of the cases mixes up the pattern. An accountant named Robert Talley. His business partner died by suicide in front of him.

Then four days later, Tally murdered a woman he never met before out of the blue. But a week later, the key eyewitness to the murder died by suicide and the pattern resumed. Rose understands this to mean that Robert Talley is still alive. And Joel confirms this. He's sitting and holding an Altoona. Rose knows that she has to talk to him. I know that this film is very long as it is.

A little bit. But I feel like maybe just a moment of seeing Joel do a little bit of research. Yeah. See, I'll be honest. I did feel that's why I begrudgingly gave that other one a research scene because I felt very robbed of the research. Yeah. That Joel. apparently went on yeah that's fair I was like come on man I wanted to be there for that

But we cut to Joel's car where he drives them across the bridge. Rose watches him from the passenger seat expectantly. And when she asks him to say something, he assures her that he will. He just needs a second. He was expecting her to say that this was some kind. of cult or blackmail scheme. But this?

He stammers before sighing and reasoning that they can put aside the possibility that this evil force could even exist. He clarifies that what she's saying is that this thing is jumping around from person to person, causing them to kill themselves. I will say I loved.

The mirroring of this moment where she had this exact conversation with Trevor sitting in the passenger seat of his car saying, will you please say something? And he's like, the fuck do you want me to say? Yeah. Mirroring this with Joel and him being like. I am processing this. I'm hearing what you said. Yes. Give me just a minute. It worked so well for me. And I feel like maybe it could be construed as like heavy handed because it is.

Literally the same thing happening with these two love interests in this film. But I appreciated it because enough time has passed and I feel like this is what I wanted from Trevor. This is the reaction I wanted. Yeah. When she's like, please listen to me. And he's like. I can fucking do this right now. Right now. I think I appreciated it less as a parallel, more just me wanting Rose to have someone. Yeah. Yeah.

And it does come in a moment where she's got no one. She can't trust her doctor. She can't go back to work. Her fiance is a fucking dick. Her sister just slammed the door in her face. It is nice to see him able to help because he is doing all this for her. Yeah. And she told him not to say anything or that he wasn't.

But Rose counters that maybe it's not suicide. She says that her patient was terrified, but she wasn't suicidal. But in the end, everything about her changed. Like the person Rose had been talking to was gone and something else had taken over. Struggling to comprehend, Joel proposes that it's like the guy in the security camera and Rose agrees that it was exactly like that. Joel can only breathe. What the fuck?

Rose tentatively asks in those cases he found, how long was it between each victim's death? Joel pauses before answering that not one of them lasted longer than a week, and some of them didn't even make it past four days. This dazes Rose, who blinks her tear-filled eyes and shares that today was her fourth day.

But Joel is firm that whatever happened to the other people is not going to happen to her. He promises her. She grabs his hand and he looks down at this for a moment before alternating his attention between rows and the road as she looks contemplatively out the window. So if you really think about it, that's like what? Between three and five or six months? All of this has happened?

Yeah, because it's back to back to back to back to back. Oh, damn. That's wild. Yeah, that's pretty horrifying, actually. Yeah. And I did appreciate, although I was a little surprised, that he was like a weak. Yeah. It made me think, honestly, a lot of The Ring. Yes. Yeah.

It reminds me when Noah's talking to Rachel and then they're kind of dealing with that. Yeah. And he's like, no, we're going to figure this out or whatever. And that's kind of what I thought here. Yeah. I think this film owes a lot to a lot of films. Yeah. I do get a lot of that. I get a lot of it. They're buzzed in at the prison. They're led by Deputy Sheriff Doug, played by Stephen Strickland.

Joel thanks him, promising that he owes him one for this. But Doug gives the credit to Tally for firing every lawyer he's been given. He's like, you guys know what he did, right? Placing his hand on Rose's back, Joel says that Dr. Cotter is putting together a psychological profile for a similar case for them. Doug wishes them luck, chuckling that Tally is a whole box of Froot Loops.

Before they part ways, Doug warns that they only have 10 minutes with Tally, which is the best he could do without a court order. Still, Joel's appreciative as he leads Rose away from the deputy sheriff. Rose and Joel step into the interrogation room where behind the divider waits Robert Talley played by Rob Morgan. He has his head down but he raises it to look at them as they approach. Joel stays back while Rose steps forward.

and takes her seat so i just want to talk about this visitation room this scene was filmed in an actual prison that was partially shut down And so I was like, OK, yeah, they just so they use the visitation room and just filmed it there. Yeah, they didn't. They filmed this in what used to be a rec room.

And then they brought in all of their own furniture that they designed for this. They... did the stencil on the walls like this was just like an empty space that they made into a visitation room in an actual prison like but it still has prison vibes yeah but i just thought how weathered the glass looks

Everything looks so good. I would have believed they just used what was there. Oh, no. Yeah. Before we move on, Rob Morgan. He looked so familiar. I was like, I know this dude. I know I know him from somewhere. And I know him because he plays the same character on Daredevil, Jessica Jones.

luke cage and iron fist holy shit yeah and i was like i because i was like i know i've seen this dude somewhere i was like where do i know him from and i did watch daredevil i watched some jessica jones i didn't watch iron fist but i did watch luke cage uh-huh so was like i know i know this dude for and and it was i was like oh damn he is the same person in all those shows

He's really good in this. We don't have him for a long time, but we have him for a good time. He said that he tried to approach this scene like it was its own film. Like he really gave it everything that he had. And he said something. I think it was him. I had read it in an interview. It was either him or Finn. But that Robert is the one behind bars. But he is the freest person in this room. Oh, that's fair.

I honestly, there is, and we were talking about nuanced performances. This performance, he is asked so much and he delivers on every single front. He's fantastic.

But Rose formally introduces herself and gently requests that he answer a few questions. But Tali is done answering questions. He reminds her that he confessed. But Rose says that she doesn't care what he was accused of. She wants... to know what he experienced in the days leading up to it when he doesn't respond she takes in a shaky breath and clasps together her trembling hands

She says that she has a young woman as a patient and four days ago, a man died by suicide in front of her. Ever since then, she's been seeing something that pretends to be other people. Tally visibly reacts to this, straightening up in his chair before lowering his head into his hands. But Rose continues. The man that took his own life claimed to have been seeing the exact same thing. Agonized, Tally asks what the fuck she wants from him. Rose asks him blatantly, what is it?

Tally admits that he doesn't know. Rose wonders why everyone else that has seen it is dead, but he's still alive. She pleads with him, begging that he can help her patient. Tally contemplates this and declares that she make Joel leave. Joel shakes his head, stating that that's not going to happen. But Tally repeats his demands. Let the cop leave and I'll tell you what I know.

Rose turns to Joel and pleads with him in a whisper. Hesitantly Joel does as he's asked making it clear that he'll be right outside. Again I know we've used the phrase nuance performance many times. There is something so police officer about Joel with his not a chance pal. Yeah. It is so like that's a cop. For real. It was really, really well done. Yeah.

As soon as they're alone, Talley makes good on his deal. He divulges that he tried to research everything he could about this thing. He found that there had been other chains in the past, even one in Brazil a few years ago. He sniffles as he shares that the man in Brazil escaped it by killing his neighbor and passing it to the neighbor's wife. He tells her plainly your patient is going to die unless she kills someone.

That's the only way to get rid of it but she has to do it in front of someone so it can pass to them because it needs trauma to spread. The trauma is what gives it power. He says that Rose's patient needs to make it count. She has to use some kind of weapon and make the biggest mess she can.

As Tally speaks, Rose grows more uneasy, shifting in her seat and fiddling nervously with her hands. But when he starts to dole out this morbid advice, she interrupts, screaming that she can't kill someone. Rose. I know. She clamps her hands over her mouth, but it's too late. Tally asks, his voice dripping with betrayal. You? You have it?

He tries to back away from the divider, separating him and Rose, but the chains shackling his wrist to the table stop him. He screams, demanding to know why the fuck she came here, and he bangs on the table in front of him, emphatic that... she is not giving it back to him he screams for Rose to get out of here and when the door slams open and the officers rush in he begs them to get Rose away from him

Rose jumps to her feet and starts backing up toward the door but Joel comes in grabbing her by her sleeve and pulling Rose the rest of the way out of the visitation room. Tally is left behind, thrashing in his yellow uniform as the officers fight to restrain him, and he continues to plead with them to get Rose away. This took a turn. It did. Yeah, I...

I don't blame him. How the fuck are you going to bring that back over here to me? That's so fucked up, dude. Rose said, no, not in my mouth. Is what that kid would say. My patient can't get someone. My patient. I was like, God damn it, Rose. Did this almost like the proposition and the solution. Did it remind you a little bit of drag me to hell with the kitten? Oh man. Yeah. That poor kitten. Yeah. I'm still not over that. Yeah.

Outside, Joel has to jog to catch up with Rose. When he reaches her, he asks what happened. What did Tally say? Panting, Rose declares that he said nothing. that pissed me off yeah he has done nothing but be in your corner yeah he is not trevor yeah and i understand that it's pretty wild what you were told yeah but So is everything else that's been going on. No shit. She's like, it was the wrong number. What? What are you talking? You were in front of him. Yeah.

Obviously, Joel doesn't believe this, but Rose says that Tally is just out of his fucking mind. She stomps over to Joel's car and gets inside. Joel follows suit, getting behind the wheel and driving them away. Rose looks reflectively out the window as Joel looks worriedly at her. But when Rose arrives at home, she pauses at the door, holding the police reports tight against her chest.

When her phone rings, Rose pulls it out of her pocket to see who's calling. It's Dr. Madeline Northcott, and Rose does not answer. Later she stands in the large windows upstairs the reflection of a huge tree blotting out her small frame. Still she stands defiant. Later, she has a spread of horrific crime scene photos on her dining room table. She gnaws anxiously at her thumb as she looks them over. When her phone chimes, she checks it. It's a text from Trevor. We need to talk. Are you home?

Rose looks at this for a moment continuing to bite at her thumb but she gasps when she bites too hard and hurts herself. When she looks down at her thumb she realizes that she's drawn blood. So the contact photo for Trevor is smiling fully with his teeth now. Yeah. Oh, okay. This is so fucking subtle and I loved it. So he's happier now. Right. Things have gotten better for him. He's happy right now. So Rose changed his context.

Rose runs her thumb under the tap in the kitchen. Once she's finished she takes a lingering look at the knife block on the counter. Hesitantly she reaches out for it and her hand is trembling when she pulls one up. But she lets it go when the doorbell rings, startling her. She can see through the dining room window that it's Dr. Northcott on her porch. Northcott sees her too and offers a small wave.

Rose immediately rushes to the table and gathers up the crime scene photos before opening the door. When she asks the doctor what she's doing here Northcott offers an apology if Rose felt ambushed yesterday. She admits that it was the wrong approach. Rose agrees and advises that Northcott go, but before she can close the door, Northcott stops her. She reminds Rose that she is already aware that Northcott is obligated to report her if she thinks that Rose is a danger to her.

She asks her to help convince her that she's not a danger. Rose begrudgingly lets her inside. They sit across from each other on opposite couches in the living room as Rose presses a tissue to her still bleeding thumb. Northcott shares that Trevor said there had been talk of ghosts, but Rose corrects that she never used the word ghost, which she didn't, and she already told Trevor that. Yeah. Northcott pivots. Evil beings, then. The paranormal.

Rose says that she admitted to Trevor that she was seeing things which is the same thing she told Northcott but she says that it's not even happening anymore. It was just a combination of stress and lack of sleep. She says that confiding in Trevor was obvious. a mistake but that's all that happened she asks if they're good eager to end this interrogation but Northcott asks a question in return how are you feeling today

Rose scoffs. She feigns reflection on her life at this point. She's pretty sure that her fiance thinks she's crazy. Her sister just totally shut her out. And now her former therapist is making unannounced house calls to make sure she's not in danger. But other than that, she's good.

The phone starts to ring and Rose brings her thumb to her mouth again, but drops it when she meets Northcott's gaze. Northcott looks at her with some concern before asking if Rose should get the phone. Rose answers it with an impatient, what? But the person on the other end of the phone is Dr. Madeline Northcott.

worry coloring her tone she says that she's been trying to call rose's cell phone all morning she's very concerned with the way things were left yesterday Rose's trembling hand loses grip on the phone, and Dr. Northcott's voice continues to call out, asking if she's still there as it slowly falls from her grip. But on the other couch, this version of Dr. Northcott's face slowly morphs into a devious smile.

I will say this is my least favorite. Yeah. Yeah. Look, it starts. It gets better than it was. But it starts really poorly. But it does get better. It just doesn't reach the heights of a Laura. Rose pleads no, but a deep and distorted voice pours from Northcott's lips. Almost time, Rose. Rose sobs, asking what the fuck it is. The fake therapist rises and Rose scampers away down the stairs. But this nefarious version of Northcott is close behind, striding over the couch and meeting her.

on the landing. She clamps a hand over Rose's mouth and brings her own face close, drool oozing and pouring from her lips. The score reaches a growling crescendo and we cut to the outside of the hospital. where Rose sits quietly in her car before glancing over to the passenger seat.

So I just have to go on record and say I don't like anything that we just saw in the preceding scene. I don't understand why we're referencing Alien 3 with Ripley cowering from the xenomorph. I can maybe shed some light in a minute. Okay. Why there's an Easter egg for Alien. Okay, please help me. Yeah. But is it because there's something, is it a little smile in the alien's mouth? Yeah. That little alien was so happy. But I think that... What they did earlier with the security call.

was basically the same scare that we just had here, just a lot more blatant and explicit this time around. Yeah, yeah. I think it was much more successful for me the first time where it was this fake out. It's the same basic bear that we're dealing with here. It is. I, okay, I'll be honest. I don't mind any of it until Northcott gets her. And then we cut to her in the car. And that's very strange too. Like what just, so we're just. yeah yeah throwing that away that

I don't really like because I feel like it's almost like, and it follows where we're trying to get away from it. Yeah. And so the fact that you were caught, I thought that that was kind of the end of this section of the film. And we were about to launch into something.

where she is caught or where she's part of this because one of the one of Munoz's drawings was like a bunch of spirits or a bunch of something comprising that shadowy figure yeah so i'm like is she gonna be in some kind of hive like i but it's like oh no we're still running we're still going through this but i think it's because you also had that warning of almost time rose not time yet i'm just here to fuck with you a little bit

Don't like it. No, for me, it doesn't work because I don't, and maybe it's just me, I don't like this thing warning me about my time. Also... You know what I mean? It's very weird. Yeah, that it's that it's not a Freddy situation. If it is, then we let's dabble in that. Let's do the dream world stuff. Let's whatever. But it is very weird. that you're warning me. You know what I mean? And then...

the cut does make it seem very like, Oh, just forget what we saw. That was just to kind of scare you or to let you know. Okay. Yeah. Like I came prepared to defend this a lot because I, I liked this movie a lot, but I, I didn't care for that. That part I didn't.

Love. And honestly, the more that you say it, it really is the warning that does make it even less scary. Yeah, it's weird. It's a lot scarier when it's like, are you sure you didn't let something in the house? That's fucking like goosebumps. Yeah, that was definitely scarier. But on the passenger seat next to the police reports is a large knife from her kitchen.

Rose takes it and slides it up the sleeve of her coat as the strange score mounts. But when she gets out of the car the score stops with the slamming of the door. Rose goes inside and uses her ID to access her floor. The sounds around her are muffled as she turns away from the officers and steps into the pink hallway. But Wanda calls out to her, asking, isn't she supposed to be on leave?

Rose offers an unconvincing smile and gives the excuse that she's just grabbing something from her office. She continues down the hall pausing at the doorway of one of the patient rooms. She steps inside and sitting on the bed with his back to her, disheveled and dazed, is Carl. He slowly turns to look at her and she greets him in a shaky whisper.

Carl is immediately horrified. He jumps up and backs up against the wall, repeating no, no, no, no. Still, Rose enters the room, assuring him that it's okay and trying to shush him. But Carl's cries of denial grow louder and louder and he backs away from Rose until he's cowering in the corner of the room. Rose is like, shh, shh, shut the fuck up. Carl is screaming, but he goes quiet when Dr. Desai appears in the doorway, calling out to Rose in a shocked tone.

He asks what she's doing here, and breathless, Rose admits that she doesn't know. Carl is frantic, muttering to himself in the corner. Desai takes a step closer, reminding Rose that she can't be around patients. But this is when she unsheathes the knife from her sleeve. She turns around and plunges it right into Carl's heart.

Carl cries out at the impact, but the two just look at each other. The score is disjointed and frantic when Rose slides the blade out of Carl's chest and stabs it back in. Carl smiles at her. Rose takes it out and stabs him in the stomach again and again, crying out with each jab. And Carl cries out with her, mockingly. He smiles, his teeth stained red with his own blood. Dr. Desai screams from the doorway.

bringing his hands to his face in horror but he slowly peels his fucking face off revealing a screaming network of muscle underneath rose shrieks what the fuck This is fucking insane. And that's when she wakes up in the parking lot still behind the wheel of her car. And thank God, because this really escalated to staggering heights. It did. I know this is a bad dream. This is fucking crazy. But that was very funny. Yeah.

It was bad enough with the reactions of the stabbing and everything happening there. But when we turn. Yeah. And he's ripping his fucking face off. I can't deal with this right now. He's like, I can't even look at this right now. He's like going with the beat of her stabbing. He's like twerking his front side with it. What the hell? He's like, what are you doing? what is happening in this room but watching him peel his face off i want to talk about the effects for a moment okay

Alec Gillis and Thomas Woodruff Jr. did practical effects for the film. They've done work on Death Becomes Her, Terminator, It Chapters 1 and 2, Annabelle, The Nun. Funnily enough, Tremors. Hey. Is this... Amalgamated Dynamics? Yes. Fuck yeah. Yes. I remember. But it was their work on Aliens and Pumpkinhead that Parker Finn was obsessed with as a child. He said that when he first met them, he literally told them that they changed his life.

It was practical effects that made him want to make films in the first place for movies that he watched when he was a kid. Oh, wow. So he had insisted on practical effects being used on Smile. And when the studio said that it would make everything more difficult, he... insisted he was like i don't care yeah and i applaud him for that yeah and they do great work here and we see some shit later on it was successful for some of us not successful for all of us but it is impressive

Yeah. I think we can all agree on. Yes, the work is very impressive. But Rose screams as the real world comes into focus around her. She screams out, fuck, clutching the wheel and catching her breath. But she's startled by a knock at her window. It's Dr. Desai.

He asks what she's doing here, and she admits that she doesn't know. As she stammers for words, Desai proposes that they go outside and talk. Rose refuses this immediately, but Desai cautions that he doesn't think she should be alone right now. Rose though is adamant that she needs to be alone. Saying these words out loud dawns something within her. I need to be alone. She realizes something. She pulls on her seatbelt and apologizes to Dr. Desai for having to leave.

But Desai looks over and sees the knife in her passenger seat. His eyes widen in alarm and he says again that she shouldn't go anywhere. He tells her to just relax and he'll make a phone call. But when she looks up at Desai, it's Carl now. I did want to point out in that. Dream sequence where he rips his own face off. He's wearing a patterned tie and it's yellow. Oh. When he knocks on her window and is speaking with her right now, he's wearing the same patterned tie, but it's green.

huh and that chef's kiss i think that that is so fucking cool that is using yellow to denote these moments of some bad shit is about to go down yeah But she speeds down a country road, and when Joel calls her, she answers. Joel is frantic, reporting that he just saw an APB go out for Rose, saying that she's dangerous. I was like, oh my God. He went right to his office. He called the police immediately. He asks her what the fuck happened.

Rose says that she knows what she needs to do. This thing needs a victim to pass on to in order to survive. But if there's no one there, there's no one it can pass to. As long as she's alone, she can deprive it of what it needs. Joel says that avoiding people forever doesn't make any sense, but Rose declares that she's not gonna keep running. She's gotta face it.

Concern creeping into his voice, Joel says that he'll come to her. He asks her to just tell him where she is, but Rose hangs up on him. The road is upside down again when she speeds away. Finally, she turns out a mailbox standing stunted among the trees. We linger on the side of it as the faded address comes into view. 409. Hmm. Four plus zero plus nine. 13. Rose parks and lets out a sigh before getting out of her vehicle.

She stops in the street and looks across at a worn and weathered house. We linger on the home, sullied with its splintered wood and poison memories. But behind Rose in her car, her phone lights up with an incoming call from Joel. She leaves the phone and her car behind though and uneasy music begins to build as she walks up the path to the front door.

She pulls the keys from her pocket as we pull back from her, melting through the diamond-shaped window in the front door. And now we watch from inside the dark house as Rose lets herself in, unlocking the door and pushing it open. and unwinding hinges. She takes a look around her childhood home, abandoned save for meager furniture covered in sheets. Sunlight pours in sickly through the dirty windows. Lines on the doorframe denote the rising heights of Rose and Holly over the years.

and Rose pushes the creaky door open to reveal a childhood bedroom. Furniture still stands stoic despite the passage of time, but Rose's attention to the room is fleeting. Instead, she turns toward the door at the end of the hall. The wallpaper is dark and mottled and the door is closed. She starts to walk down the hall and we hear a faint groaning wheeze. It grows louder and louder until Rose steals herself and turns the doorknob.

Then it stops. But when Rose peeks her head into the room, she's 10 years old again. Her eyes are red and puffy from crying, but we leave her and glide over the dresser, littered with its pill bottles, family photos, and cigarette-speared sandwich. We pant a mom who is lying on the bed, her breath rasping out of her. Her eyes are half-lidded when she groggily calls out to Rose.

Rose watches her, but mom is barely able to lift up her head when she weakly asks her to please help. Her wet eyes roll unfocused as she admits to her daughter that mommy made a mistake. She asks Rose to please call for help. But Rose continues to stand in the doorway, her hand gripping the knob, and as mom's breathing turns wheezy, Rose shakes her head.

realizing that her daughter isn't helping her. Mom summons her strength to lift her head and cry out her name in a cracked voice. Rose flees the room, closing the door behind her. This provides some context that we did not get at the beginning. It does. And it's just, it's so fucking sad. It's very, very tragic. I appreciate on a technical level.

the way that we're match cutting so much yeah yeah in this house i think that the design of the house to show the age yeah between when she was a kid and now yeah is pretty impressive work yeah We watch as the light in the room changes and the worn walls crack as present-day Rose steps into the room. She looks into it with sorrow at its bare walls, at the ill-fated bed.

Emotions swell, but she takes a deep breath and after a reflective moment, Rose steps back into the hall, closing her mother's bedroom door behind her. Struck with an idea, she dashes to the garage. She finds a flashlight, but she's frustrated when it doesn't turn on. It was kind of funny to me that she expected it to turn on. It was bad when it didn't. Instead, she sets her sights on a kerosene lamp and she snatches it up, bringing it inside the house.

I was a little surprised to learn on commentary that sometimes when it comes to productions, things as small as a lamp can be a pain in the ass for a production. Like they were talking about it on commentary.

they said that lighting these scenes were so fucking difficult and they actually had three different lanterns that they built just for this scene yeah one of them was an actual lantern that was kerosene powered as you would expect yeah one was a another lamp that was made to look exactly like that first one but was lit with an led light then there was a third one that was made of rubber and we'll learn why right yeah but all the while

No matter what they did, the lantern they created was not enough to light these scenes. And so they had, I think it was two or three. Lighting technicians with light tubes built to simulate the light of a lantern. So it's just like, you know, you're watching the scene and you just see her with a lantern. You're like, yeah, okay, sure. You don't even think about it. You have no idea. Yeah. All that's behind it. I do.

appreciate it because you saying that makes me think of that one episode of game of thrones when we couldn't see a fucking thing yeah and i literally thought my tv had broken they at least took the time to be like we can make it look realistic with you know I appreciate it. Yeah. Sinister should have done that too. Yeah. Make it look like we're eating dinner. You're in the house, dude. Like, what the fuck?

But inside, Rose closes and locks all of the windows and pulls the shades closed. It's fully dark outside now. And once Rose lights the kerosene lamp, it's the only source of light inside the house. I guess besides those. She carries it as she wanders through the empty house, looking around before settling down in a covered chair. Rose pulls off her coat and perches, ready.

That's when she hears the whine of rusted hinges. Her focus turns to the long hallway leading to her mother's bedroom. Bravely she picks up the kerosene lamp and uses it to light her way as she goes to investigate. It only takes stepping into the hall to realize that the door to her mother's bedroom, the door that she had firmly closed earlier, is cracked open.

Rose continues forward anyway at a slow and steady pace holding the lamp out in front of her. As she gets closer we hear her mother's soft sobs coming from the bedroom. Rose pushes the door open the rest of the way. mom is sitting on the bed in the dark socked feet planted firmly on the floor and her body folded forward with her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands she continues to weep but when rose steps toward her mom looks up. She wipes the tears from her face and stands.

Mom stands there in socks, a floral tank top and underwear. She is dirty and her hair is must, but she assures Rose that it's okay. She tells her to come here, but Rose doesn't move. Mom is lit in the unnatural glow of the kerosene lamp when she tells her daughter that she is so sorry. Rose begins to cry, but she continues that she hasn't been a good mom, but she wants to be, and she tries to be.

She admits that sometimes everything is too much. She says that there's something terrible inside of her and she hates herself. Rose finally speaks up, abruptly imploring her mother to stop, but she doesn't stop. Instead, she asks Rose, are you ashamed of me? And when Rose says that she's not, her mother asks, well, then why did you let me die? She wants to know, why didn't you save me?

Her voice in a shaking whisper, Rose counters that it wasn't her fault. An edge creeping into her voice, mom reminds her that she could have called for help, but she didn't. Rose begs her to stop.

mom's voice is ragged when she accuses rose you wished that i would die and rose fires back sobbing that it's because she was afraid of her mother she was only 10 years old and her mother was a monster she concedes that she knows it isn't fair and that she needed help but she couldn't do it Rose admits that she's carried that guilt for her entire life but she has to let it go she says this again

firmer and more certain, but mom just gazes back at her. Rose asserts that this is not real, but Rose, her mom offers, your mind makes it real. Her lips curl into a sinister smile. Rose asks, what is this? Why is it doing this to her? As Rose backs out of the room, mom is left in shadow as the thing wearing her memory answers in a distorted voice. Because your mind is so inviting.

I know that Laura had said some stuff earlier about it appearing as people that you may not know or people that you do know and even gave examples of her own family. But she did not sell just how personal this thing gets. Yes. I mean, this thing is a real jerk. Yeah. I think it's so clear that it is in her head. Yes. It is living and thriving. off of her trauma, off of her guilt, off of her memories. Like, this was fucking rough. Is it? Is it?

Wrong to say that this thing is going too far. No, it's not. It's unbelievable. It's not wrong to say. It is. It's gone entirely too far. It's unbelievable. Rose backs up into the hallway and tries to close the door behind her, but long fingers grip it before she can. The hand pulls the door open to reveal Nightmare Mom, played by Kevin Kepi, still wearing her mother's clothes. This new version of her is impossibly tall, stretched to the ceiling and filling the hallway, gripping the wall.

it pulls itself along chuckling darkly as it comes after Rose. They had said on commentary that this is accomplished through the construction of a smaller hallway and forced perspective the way they're shooting. So good. Okay. It's fantastic. Yeah. This is real cool. Yeah. And it makes Rose look so.

small yeah it's incredible i read that it's a it also i mean obviously is supposed to symbolize what her mom looked like to her as a child oh yeah it's being like redone with her as an adult and she does look tiny

Rose whimpers as she backs into the wall, but just as Nightmare Mom lowers its face to hers, she scrambles away. She stands at the end of the hall, holding out the kerosene lamp, but Nightmare Mom appears right next to her, scaring the sh- out of her and of me when she grips Rose's arm and tosses her across the room. Rose hits the wall and thuds to the floor where Nightmare Mom promptly grabs her by the throat. Staring down at her, it brags that Rose can't escape her own mind.

As Rose struggles to breathe, she sees that the fallen kerosene lamp has started a fire on the floor beneath it. Rose grabs at the entity's hand, prying it away and asserting that it's her mind. She is able to pull the hand... free bending the arm back so hard that the bone beneath peeks through the skin nightmare mom throws her head back in a furious shriek as rose quips you can't escape it either

She grabs the flaming lamp and swings it, connecting with the side of Nightmare Mom's head and setting it ablaze. I'm assuming, I'm hoping that's the rubber lamp. You got it. The entity stands tall, engulfed in flames as it flails its arms wildly. Rose scoots away from it and the entity shrieks, flopping against the floor, growling and crawling towards her. Its maternal facade burned away.

It is nothing more than the smoldering suggestion of a person as it growls at her. But Rose has made it to the front door. She shuts it behind her as she lets herself outside. Coughing from the smoke and stumbling from her injuries, Rose limps away from the house. The glass of the windows behind her shatter, letting out hungry flames to lick at the disheveled shelter.

Finally, the roof buckles and caves in, and Rose turns to look at the burning home, at her burning memories. Haunting vocalizing plays as Rose drives away from the destruction in her car. She shows up to Joel's apartment and he can't hide his shock when he opens the door.

Rose is worse for wear, singed, bruised. She's clearly been through it. And when she asks if she can come in, Joel insists that she does. When he asks where she's been, all Rose can do is apologize for dragging... him into her fucked up mess she shares that for most of her life she's been afraid of letting people get too close to her she was afraid of what they might see if they really looked

So she put up a wall and kept people at a distance. Then she met Joel. And when she felt those walls coming down, it scared the shit out of her. She cries as she confesses that she was selfish and it wasn't fair to him. She says that she is so sorry and that this is selfish to ask, but she's going to anyway. Could she just stay here and sleep? And could he stay here with her while she sleeps?

She asks him please and looks at him hopefully, but Joel doesn't even have to think about it. His gaze lowered, he nods, and he tells her that of course he'll stay with her. But his voice low, he adds. I'll stay with you forever. Rose's eyes widen as Joel's brightly lit apartment dims dark around her. In the new shadow, Joel's features lift into a dark smile. He chuckles as the veins stand out in his forehead.

So just the sound design of that chuckle. Yeah. It is so fucking good and deep and frightening. Yeah. This is the I was out. I was thinking the same thing. Do you think the address of the house was a clue to that? Oh, like 1408. Oh, okay, okay. I, um... Also wanted to point out here that Joel is wearing yellow socks. Well, there you go. Oh, all right. Yeah, but this was devastating.

Rose can only breathe no as she backs away from him. She glances over to the door, then back at Joel, standing solidly with his arms crossed. Her breath hitching, she crosses the room toward the door. Joel is still until he suddenly breaks into a run. Rose flees from him, throwing open the door to his apartment and running out into the front yard. She's not in the hallway of Joel's apartment building, but in the grass in front of her childhood home.

When she turns to face the house, a musical sting pitches high, and we see that it's worn and old, but it's still standing. It never burned down at all. I loved this gag so much. Very much. It is accomplished practically. They built a facade of the house. And then put the set of Joel's apartment behind that. Oh my God. So you have her running out and it's literally exactly what you see. Yeah. That was really good. I'm not going to.

say that i didn't expect it yeah but it was very like oh okay we're not done i was fucking hoping man it would have been anticlimactic i'm not gonna lie but getting that moment of her with her mom and realizing it wasn't my fault. Like finally releasing that demon and letting it go.

And then going back to Joel and us understanding, oh, she ended it because he had gotten too close. Yeah. And maybe that's why her and Trevor don't seem very connected because maybe she keeps him at a distance too. Okay. I mean, she should. He's a piece.

shit but I um we're gonna get into the ending right now but I don't want to break momentum so I'm just gonna share now that Parker Finn had said that this ending that we're about to see was always the ending that he intended Although the path to the ending did change several times and he really wanted this moment of emotional catharsis with. mom with joel and he kind of saw it as a way to have his cake and eat it too all right and i'm not mad at it no

When Rose hears her name from the street she turns to see Joel getting out of his car. At the sight of him she screams no repeatedly and runs into the house locking the door behind her.

Joel bangs on the door, demanding that she let him in, but Rose stands in the light of the kerosene lamp. When she hears a hissing sound, she turns. Nightmare Mom is still there, even taller if that's... possible grinning out at her as it stumbles into the room aiding itself by bracing its hands along the ceiling rose screams understandably

Outside, this is all Joel hears, Rose's horrified screams and desperate no's, so he starts to kick down the door. But inside, Nightmare Mom's eyes bulge as she smiles down at Rose. Rose is stricken and horrified and can only watch as Nightmare Mom grabs onto her own face with her huge hands. She pulls the face off, revealing melting gore beneath. soulless eyes staring out rows and rows of dirty bloody smiling teeth

This is the monstrosity played by Marty Matulas. It's series of malformed jaws lull as it growls at Rose. So the monstrosity is a full body costume. Oh, wow. It's a full body costume. It's wild. There's just a dude in there. That's insane. Holy shit. Yeah. Are you saving your thoughts for later? I can tell you right now. I, I'm not a big fan of this creature. I respect the work that went into crafting it. I, I just, I don't feel like it.

Honestly, the reveal and the pulling of the face and then it's just one sniff of that fog and you're inside out. I feel like it's almost, and maybe this is the intention, but seeing that underneath the face of the facade of the mother, it made me laugh. I mean, he's happy. Yeah. It's just I don't know if it's it's partially meant as like if it's supposed to be a little humorous to the rows of teeth, the like little baby eyes. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe it is. I mean, he does use.

kind of dark humor throughout and that's why i think that's why i'm so confused because it to me was not scary yeah well i mean and the rose of teeth are like the rose of victoria's necklace which i thought was really cool foreshadowing I will agree that I don't necessarily look at this creature and feel frightened. I think it ripping itself out of this facade was creepy.

I think it might have worked a little bit better if we didn't see Dr. Desai rip his face off as well. There's been a lot of face rippings. I needed them both. A lot of right now is a lot of face rippings. But what I'm thinking when I'm looking at this is this is... what laura saw yeah she saw it it coming at her this is what and what we're about to see is what was happening to her on the floor so it is really cool to see this moment in

recontextualizing something that we saw way at the beginning but yeah I will agree I kind of like the design of the monster I think it is different I think it's something that I haven't seen before which I always do appreciate I like how the smile is incorporated

and it makes me think of all the times that Rose has put on a fake smile throughout this whole movie. I like that it is hiding behind a facade. I like that it's feeding off of this trauma. I like... so many things about it but i will agree that i don't necessarily look at it and feel scared and that's the thing is i don't know if you're supposed to i don't either but i i don't do you remember the tooth child from channel zero I do, yeah. I like that. Yeah. Yeah, that would have been cool, too.

I like this. I'm going to be honest. I don't see anything funny about this. I think that this is not what I was expecting. No. At all. Yeah, no. And seeing it.

I can understand that, but I feel like it's so gross and so different to where it's like, I'm really glad that's what this is. I would have been mad if it would have been just some thin, tall... crooked man looking thing right or it would have just been uh her mom but in a distorted way i mean i know it is but this is a very much larger than life entity

It does need to be bigger. It does need to be crazy. And for me, it works. And I'll be honest, I like the last about 15, 20 minutes of this movie. For me, I think it's the best of the whole movie. I really like the way this look. I don't know what it was, but I was like, and it might be what we're fixing to see. I love the reveal and I love what's about to happen. Right. The visual of it. Yeah. I do agree. I don't.

necessarily feel scared looking at this thing but I am disgusted by it and I think that it is cool that it can take the form of so many things but it is its own thing this is what the fuck it looks like no matter what it is choosing to appear as to you no matter whose skin it is choosing to wear. This thing looks like that, and that is fucking wild. This is the thing that's been chasing her this whole movie. This is the thing causing all this havoc with Munoz and Laura and Angela Powell.

What's his name? Tally at the prison. It's this guy. That is wild. He's the culprit. He's the culprit. Red-handed. And bodied. Yeah. And faced. And faced. But Rose is... broken she stares up at the entity but her screaming tapers off she falls to her knees kneeling before it as it reaches out to her In the light of the kerosene lamp, the monstrosity pries open Rose's face, stretching her jaw impossibly wide so that it can begin to climb inside.

This is a visual that Parker Finn said that he was adamant. This visual right here that we see, and I love it. He wanted this at the ending. This is exactly how he saw it in his head. And to accomplish it, they created a rose dummy. The monstrosity, the actor in the suit is literally pulling the mouth open wide. That's crazy as fuck. Yeah. And you can see, I mean, whenever you get that wide shot. Yeah. It's so good. Yeah.

But Joel finally breaks the door down. He turns on his flashlight and uses the beam to cut through the darkness as he calls out for Rose. He spots the kerosene lamp on the floor, her discarded jacket next to the covered chair. But it's not until he hears the dripping that he finally finds Rose. She stands with her back to him, holding an overturned can of gas over her head. Soiled in it, she tosses it to the side, ignoring Joel when he calls out to her.

He calls her name again, and finally, Rose turns, smiling brightly. His breath catching, Joel lowers his flashlight, but Rose continues to smile in the shadows. She's still smiling when she opens a box of matches, when she lights one. Dr. Rose Cotter is still smiling when she brings the match to her face, illuminating her delighted expression. Reflected in Joel's horrified eyes, we see Rose ignite in flame. Joel can't turn away, and we press in on his widening eye as Rose burns. We cut to black.

Lollipop by the Cordets Plays, because apparently the crew nicknamed the Monstrosity Lollipop. It was an in-joke. Yeah, it's pretty inside baseball. Because everyone else is like, what the fuck? I didn't work on this film. It's weird. And the credits roll. So what did you guys think of Smile?

I, I'm not mad at the ending. I, I feel like maybe something a little crazier would have happened, you know, but I mean, I guess, you know, setting yourself on fire. I was like crazy, pretty crazy. Well, I mean, that's all she had there. know but i mean the dude took the shears to himself and then the hammer and no it i mean you know this was pretty tame for that but i i did

I'm just saying. That's a wild complaint. That's not what I was expecting. Me neither at all. We've just seen this goddamn monster, all right? We've been through a lot. That's true. Maybe that is a drop-off. How about a little fire scare? But it isn't bad. I did, like I said, I did enjoy that. I feel like it is a fun movie, but like I stated up top, the... I guess it's just kind of the ride getting there. And then it was a little kind of just like, okay. Oh, wow. That's cool.

like right now right now yeah right now right now but i mean it's it wasn't too bad i did have a lot of fun with it there is some things again that we complained about that i we complained a lot more than i thought we would but i mean again I didn't the movie's fun it's not great but it's okay I do like a lot of this film and I think there is like

a rewatch value to it because i do have fun when i watch it yeah you know and i think that my thing i know i mentioned earlier it does borrow a lot from films that i do like a little bit more than this one But it does build something new with all these like assembled pieces, which is what you're supposed to do. Yeah. You know, it's not a one for one of any one of these things. It's like an amalgamation.

And I appreciate that. Yeah. I just, I don't know. I think that there are some issues that are difficult for it to overcome, but it's not.

anything that i would say you know i don't think i'm gonna watch this again because i will absolutely watch this again right and i do really like even though i don't care for the creature you know i don't care for lollipop i do like the end of the film yeah yeah like the way that it goes everything with joel and rose i think that that honestly is kind of it's the worst and tragic most tragic way to end the film

But it is the most, I guess, I don't know, poetic way to win the film. Yeah. So I do appreciate that they were as bold as to do something like that. Yeah. And it is especially devastating because he was the one person that believed her. Yes.

I really, really, really like this film, bordering on loving this film. Every time I've watched it, I've liked it a little bit more. I think it is... quite an accomplishment for this being his first feature film fair i think that that it's just super impressive i am really impressed with all the performances except for that one yeah um

The practical effects, you know, all three of us ride hard for the practical effects and we also ride hard for mustaches. Calm down. I forgot about that until I just said it. I'm sad that what happened to mustache, but I I'm a big, big fan of psychological horror where. And I think that this falls under the category of an unreliable narrator because there have been several trips that Rose has taken us on that turned out to not be happening either at all or the way that she.

saw it um i love a slow decline of watching this character just come undone scene by scene to where it's like how much more can she fucking take

I really did enjoy that. I think, again, like we all agreed earlier, Sozie Bacon really fucking rose to the occasion. I think she is phenomenal in this. Kyle Gallner, as always, was great. I think that there are... a couple maybe I don't even know if I would call them dropped plot points like with her sister and it's funny because once she leaves out of the house and

Trevor's like, are you really leaving right now? And she slams the door. Trevor, it's a wrap on Trevor. We never see that motherfucker again. We see him on the text and that's it. And when Holly's like, I can't be around you right now. We never see that motherfucker again. Like it's over. And I think that maybe either you can look at it two ways. Either we maybe got a little distracted or we went away from these stories that we were trying to tell, or it speaks to the nature of.

The tragedy of this film. She doesn't get to. Yeah. either rekindle or break things off whichever or whatever he was gonna she was gonna do she doesn't get to make things right with her sister and forgive her for you know in your 10 year old mind you left me alone yeah um She doesn't get that. She doesn't get to actually tell Joel in real life. I pushed you away because I cared about you so much. That's fucking sad. It is. I mean, I.

I just really like it. And I love this commentary of I think it's very poetic almost that we see that last chance piece of mail when she's there with the therapist, because it's like, look, are you going to work out your shit? And she was like, no. And that derailed. I mean, the rest of the film, she is spiraling out of control. And I think that there is commentary there of confronting your demons and...

Your own mind being more dangerous potentially than anything else and making sure that your mind is a place that is safe for you. I mean, I don't know. I feel like this. film with this fucking weird giant smiling monster i feel like it had a lot to say and i i really i really fucking liked it a lot um and i also can't wait to cover smile too but right we will we can just kind of go into ratings i think i think we all kind of shared how we felt as we went along

Two things that I haven't mentioned in my wrap up that I do really want to talk about. Maybe I did, but. I, you know, twice isn't going to hurt the practical effects. Yeah. I really, really appreciated it. That monstrosity being a fucking full body suit that they built that rose dummy.

it's like and when you look at it you're like oh yeah of course that's a dummy but like the way that that shot is framed you're not fucking thinking about like no it i i it was it was really great i mean from the beginning when Laura does what she does. It is. It's really. It's always practical effects, man. Always. And the music.

Oh, the music. So unique, so chilling, so fucking scary at times. Those end credits, I was like, I'm going to go to the store. I was fucking truly unnerved. It is disturbing. no but overall i really i really um i'm a i'm a big fan i really like this film i think my score could even potentially go up the more times i watch it because i seem to like it more every fucking time i watch it so but right now right now right now right now

On a scale from 1 to 10, grotesquely, ghoulish grins. I am giving Smile 8.5 out of 10. grotesquely, ghoulish grins. I know I'm standing alone and that is okay with me. And I will now open up the floor to you. No, I agree. The movie was a lot of fun. The practical effects are fantastic. You know what I mean? Everybody does what they're supposed to do. But the one person. I do. I do agree that I would watch this again. Would I myself request to put it on?

Maybe. I'll do it for you. You know what I mean? Yeah. If you're watching it, that's fine. But I think, I think too, and I do understand that we have to get here and whatever. My tiny gripe about the beginning is that you just overworked yourself into this problem. Because if you would have went home and not answered the phone, none of this would have happened.

And I feel like maybe we should have taken a little more to get her there instead of that. Just I want to work. I'm just going to throw myself to my work. So that's my fault. I understand you're trying to distract yourself. I know whatever, but let me get a little more than just I need to overwork myself. Now I fucked myself over. That's fair. It's just like, yeah, give me a little more than that.

Joel, I would have loved him to be there more. Agreed. You know what I mean? I would have loved him to be there a little more. Her boyfriend, again, he's there until he's not there. Boo! Sister's the same way. It just, you know, but again. And everything is, you know, does look good. The camera works fantastic. The music, like we all said. I mean, it is. But I think, I don't know if I can go that high. I didn't expect anyone to.

For me, on a scale from 1 to 10, grotesquely ghoulish grins, I'm going to give Smile. I'm going to go with what I originally put. And I know it's going to sound low, but it's not. Oh, no. I know it's going to sound low, but it's not. Oh, wow. A three. A 6.5. Oh. I, again, it was fine. There is things that it's just, there's only so much to where nobody believes you. The entire movie doesn't believe you. Why? Because they don't, because you need to not be believed.

That's crazy. Give me a little more than that. She is saying some outlandish shit. I get it. She is, but with Joel, she could have told him and she didn't. Yeah. He was believing everything. He sure did. He even helped. And when she said, don't ask no questions. Yeah. And he's still dead. Yeah. He was like, all right, I guess. Because I have dug into about 20 cases. Yeah. Over the telephone. I'm screaming at him. It's like, God damn, he's in your corner. Yes.

Now, I don't know what else I could say, honestly. I do want to call out the production design. I think, as you said, really everything on the technical level is fantastic. Yeah. And I have to sing the praises of that score one more time. Yeah. That's probably one of the.

the better horror scores I've heard in quite a while. Yeah. Because it is so unique and you have not heard anything like it. No. And unnerving. Yeah. I think the biggest attractions, it's just kind of the characterization, the character motivations. I think.

that there are a lot of sequences that are more successful than others and some sequences and i'm like you know what we might just lose that yeah really the thing with the doctor and the grin and then the alien spit and all that yeah i'm like do we need this If we're just going to end up outside of the hospital without even talking about it? Yeah. For real. No. I will say I watched a deleted scene that it's after she calls the police. Okay. And.

He's like, did you break another glass? It cuts to them at a work thing for Trevor. And she's still unnerved. He's going to talk to his boss and she goes to the bathroom and she's sitting in the stall trying to like breathe and calm herself down. A woman, you know, we later learn who it is or whatever, pulls herself up from the next stall and peers down at her. And it's a dead woman. It's her mom. And she freaks out. She runs out. And two girls are doing coke at the sink.

And it's a whole thing. She's having a panic attack. Her and Trevor go home. She's like, I'm having panic attacks. I think I'm going to call Dr. Northcott. But he's like mad at her for what happened at the work thing. And so watching it, I'm like. I can see why you took this out. And it was like 10 minutes. It was really long, but I get what you're saying. Cause like they did trim that. And I, I feel like it.

was necessary it looked good right but yeah thinking of that with northcott maybe that maybe that could have been cut too Because I feel like, I mean, we've already got enough. And I just think that the way that they did that with the phone and the security service was way more successful. It was. And it's basically the same gag. It is. Just a little more in your face. I also, I mean, I think the ending is pretty great. I don't like the creature, of course. Not really. Not for me.

But I do, I do, I have to applaud the boldness to end on such a down note. Yeah. Because it is. It's genuinely the worst thing that could have happened. Yeah. Period. And for me, I have to say some of the writing. I mean, I do appreciate... some of the commentary that is attempted here regarding mental health yeah but other parts of it i just feel are just so like heavy-handed and ham-fisted that it just does not work for me at all yeah

But I do appreciate the attempt to start a conversation. But for me, out of 10 grotesquely ghoulish grins. I am also giving Smile a 6.5 out of 10. Thought you were going to say 8.5. I was honestly surprised when JP said it's going to be real low and then he says my score. I was like oh shit.

Well, that's all from us at Podmortem. What would you rate Smile and what should we watch next? Let us know on Instagram at thepodmortem. Be sure to follow us on Twitter and like our Steerhole Productions page on Facebook. Be sure to follow each of us on Instagram and Blue Sky at Blood and Smoke.

at juggalodaddy84 and at TravisMWH. Thanks again to Original Cinematic for sponsoring this week's episode. Please consider pledging to our Patreon where you'll get over 200 hours of bonus content, our monthly schedule, access to our Discord server, and the opportunity to help us decide which films to cover.

And if you're looking for Podmortem and Stairhole Productions merch, follow the link in our episode notes. Stay tuned until after the music for a special shout out to our Wendigo Getter patrons. And remember, it's important to shine a light in the dark corners of your mind. Banishing the monsters hiding in the shadows will bring a true smile to your face. Until next time.

Thank you for staying tuned for a special thank you to our Wendigo Getter patrons. Woo. Yeah. Very good. A special thank you to. Chris Ontiveros, Kristen Lofton, Megan Martinez, Kimberly Bass, Sophie Hodson, Anthony Jerome M., Jordan Nash, Kent Morton, Lala Thames, Travis Anissa Hunter, Miguel Myers ATX, Jennifer Perez. Allison O'Neill, Carissa, TJ and Angie Bronson, Gabrielle Trevino, Apalyn Antaveras, Karima Rhodes, Antonio Huerta, Kimberly Kleindienst, Sydney Smith, Osvaldo Soto.

Bobby Holmes, Donna Eason, J.D. Rezac, Molly Gerhart, Armand Sposto, Aaron Aguirre, Eggie, William Barry, Charity Oxner, Amanda Six, Mandy Rainwater, Eden, Jordan Roberts, Dylan. Liz Heath, Spencer Montalvo, Pancake the Panda, John Ramos, Michael Newding, Alexis Roberts, Dan Laveau, Itsy M, Gary Horton, Leisha Olivier, Kate Lamp, Carlos and Sydney, Jessica Hunter, Helena Rutter, Alan Johnston, Mariah, Livvy Funn, Scott Troutman-Wise, Touton Watson, Mozzie Bear, Brittany G, Dave Burke.

Daniel McGinnis, Emma Hagel Kissinger, Valerie G, Emiliana, CB, Taylor Santana, Will Lewison, Angelique, Smelly Poo Poo Head, Beth Bauer. Cookie, Esperanza J, Jason Kyle, OKC, Joshua Rumley, Danielle Peralta, Brandon, Sawyer Reese Farr, Sahara, Girl That's Scary, Cassandra, Andrea Simmons, Ashley Higuera.

William and Xena Rush, Ryan Brom, Megan Ochoa, Laura Lasseter, Eileen O, Marissa E, Sydney, Henry F, Megan M, Strangely Sarah, Christy Beck, Nancy and Andy, Amanda Lopez, Andy Terrell, Jason Hanivan, Katie K, Erica Moran, Cameron S, Tris Nguyen, K.87, Mariah Jensen, Carrie A. Lonnie Lono, Powell, Kayla E, Maggie H, Murder Steena, Kristen Marcy, Ori 81 Boricua, Look Like That One Girl.

Bogboy, Felnez63, Alita Pui, Probably My Jugs, Kate Thackery, Wade Pack, Alizard, Bayjay, Jay Rich, Topher Williams, Elena Mettler, Valerie Kay, Christy Lee Kruger, Professor of Humanities, Laura McCarriker, Naomi, Josh Smith, Autumn Green. Abby Kopp, Crystal 831, Skank Sinatra, Morgan Alexander, Tony Osteen, Julie Fredborg, Rihanna S, Daniel Taylor, Anna Kate, Heather Ortiz.

Kim H. August. Vengeance Spirit. Kelly Glazy Face Mac. Jenny May. Glittery Fab. Malik Caselli Armstrong. Scarley D. Toya Shea. Katie. Martin Shaw. Star. Tyler J. Daniel Dickerson. Cam Davies. Patrick Hoagland. Raven. D, Wesley Tartt, Kristen Jackson, Jacob Nordberg, Spencer, Samantha, Damian Grant, Half Price Horror, Clemmy, Erica, Jason X Rules. Karen Burrows, 203 Duncan, Aaron Norman, Stephen Rogers, Victoria Smith, Patricia A. Graham, Erasmo Pena, Danielle Wright.

Tabitha Thomas, Becca Boo, Richard Murray, Irene, Sally Slater, 52, Jordan McCarthy, Christy Michelle Wilson, Rosalind Harnias, Emily Rance, Amy, Lisa and Kathy, Mike H. Karen with a Y, Christian Sadler, Hannah, Sarah Jack, Casey L, Evelyn Knight, Paola Garcia, Gastly Grandad, Megan and Alexandra Saldivar, Lisa Sykes, Sunny Jonas, Kelsey Niemeyer-Cook, The Face Flowers, JC, Morgan Novello, Ashley, Alex M., Brandon C., Gordon Sutherland, Georgia Renlin, Ashley Poe, Najee P., Seth Schaaf.

David Kermavner, Diana Jo, Connor Gormley, Carrie Parker, Katie Face, Yuko Imada, Jane Pillsbury, Caitlin Asher, Mia Franz, Dale Harley. Annabeth Carter, Pooh Bear, Calderas, and this is the Zodiac speaking. Thank you so much. Thank you. We appreciate you all. Yes, thank you all. You truly make us. Smile. But not like this. Not like in this film. Not like that fucking monster. Not like that. Until next time.