“Smile”You can find it here.
Paramount Pictures’ latest horror film is about Sosie Bacon, a young doctor who uncovers a bizarre mystery regarding a curse that causes very disturbing smiles. It’s a terrific little horror movie, full of genuinely scary moments and indelible images. This weekend, be prepared to be surrounded with screaming people if you visit a theater to view the movie.
“Smile”Fantastic Fest, an international film festival based in Austin, Texas, gave the world premiere of the film. It is well-known for its commitment to genre cinema and dedication to its audience. The morning following the premiere, Parker Finn, the writer and director, spoke to me. “I can’t think of a better audience to debut for than for Fantastic Fest,”Parker said. “Just feeling everybody clenching all at the same time, squirming in their seats, screaming, laughing because they’re so nervous. Just the molecules in the air, it was amazing. It was the first time I got to see the finished film with an audience and it was incredible.”
Finn talked to me about how he adapts his short film for the big screen and his inspiration for it. He also shared his thoughts on the creepiness of smiles.
I’m always so fascinated by the transition from short film to feature and I was wondering if you could talk about what your experience was.
Certainly. I mean, it’s interesting when you’re a filmmaker who’s independently making short films, you are sort of just the torch bearer for everything. You’re pushing that boulder up the hill. There are collaborators. But every part of it is your responsibility. When you’re making a feature, especially with a studio like Paramount, you’re entering a machine and navigating that is very interesting as a first-time filmmaker. I was able to rely on my producers at Paramount and the entire studio for support. They helped me execute this North Star. The scope and size of this feature are enormous.
Do you have any ideas? Did you have the time to think quickly? OK, if people like this, I’ve got a few more?
Because I believe that shorts should exist as an independent entity, not as commercials for larger products, I created the video. However, the idea for the feature was born out of my post-production experience with the short. When the opportunity came up to pitch the feature version, the short was the perfect springboard. But you can’t prepare yourself to create a feature unless you actually do it.
Which was your biggest learning curve?
Just the amount that you’re not going to sleep, that you’re just the exhaustive nature of trying to, even making a short is the most exhausting (thing) that you can do. Then you take that and multiply it by a million. It’s an incredible endurance test.
Could you tell us about movies that you were inspired to make?
There were a few movies on my mind at all times. Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s “Cure,”It was something I was thinking about quite a lot. It has that kind of dark atmosphere that I love. And I loved the investigative angle. And then Todd Haynes’ “Safe”It was a movie that I was always thinking about. It really places you in Julianne Moore’s character’s anxiety in a big way, and then certainly “Rosemary’s Baby.” Just that feeling of everyone around you is gaslighting you, not believing you, feeling like you’re losing your mind and not being able to tell what’s real and what might be imagined. These are just a few of the touchstones.
It was difficult to have the bad guy become this supernatural force. You avoid giving the creature an unnecessary backstory.
This is what I meant. It can be interesting, but not what I was actually interested in. For me, I really wanted to tell this character’s story and the external stuff is frightening, but I think it’s the internal stuff that really is what gets under your skin and drives this story is Rose’s plight – what she’s going through, all of her past, her history, everything that she’s been carrying around inside of her. And if you can take that and this supernatural thing and braid them together until they become indistinguishable from each other, that’s where I want to live versus something that’s too overtly, One priest owned a book from the 1400s. I didn’t want to do any of that.
What’s the point of a smile?
I think there’s something fun there and I love the inherent contradiction between a smile and this sense of palpable evil. I wanted the movie to feel sort of like gleefully evil and I’m hoping that’s what people will get out of it.
“Smile”It is currently only playing in theaters.
