Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. Sit It's Friday night, October twenty fourth.
Speaker 1: You are looking for a good horror movie to get
Speaker 1: you in the move for Halloween is just a week away.
Speaker 1: But we got one for you, and Kevin Bacon's daughter
Speaker 1: is in it and she is very, very skewy. Welcome
Speaker 1: everybody to this episode of Amy and TJ. We continue
Speaker 1: to count down our horror hit list. We are at
Speaker 1: can you Believe it? Rose? We have made it to
Speaker 1: number eight and this is one of our newer entries
Speaker 1: on the list.
Speaker 2: We in fact it's new, but there's already a sequel
Speaker 2: and oh yeah, that was spectacular as well, but we
Speaker 2: have to stick with the original smile for our number
Speaker 2: eight on our horror hit list. It was released in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two, so three years ago. It's longer. It
Speaker 2: might be one of the longer or longest movies on
Speaker 2: our list. It's an hour and fifty six minutes. But
Speaker 2: I have to tell you it is so entertaining. It
Speaker 2: lies by. I had no idea that this was a
Speaker 2: little longer than the others. Usually you can tell.
Speaker 1: You can feel I did not. It surprise me as well.
Speaker 1: This is a two hour horror movie. And those are
Speaker 1: few and four between.
Speaker 2: Actually, there really are not many, because it's hard to
Speaker 2: keep that kind of suspense going for that long without
Speaker 2: it getting ridiculous. But this one manages to just strike
Speaker 2: the perfect balance horror, mystery thriller. And here's the synopsis.
Speaker 2: After witnessing a bizarre traumatic incident involving a patient, a
Speaker 2: psychiatrist becomes increasingly convinced she is being threatened by an
Speaker 2: uncanny entity. Hmmm, does that really give it what it deserves?
Speaker 1: I have an alternate down there that kind of starts
Speaker 1: off the same way. After witnessing a bizarre traumatic incident
Speaker 1: involving a patient, doctor Rose Cotter starts experiencing frightening occurrences
Speaker 1: that she can't explain. As an overwhelming terror begins taking
Speaker 1: over her life, Rose must confront her troubling past in
Speaker 1: order to survive and escape her horrifying new reality. A
Speaker 1: little more but still vague.
Speaker 2: It's vague, And it's so interesting that they don't talk
Speaker 2: about the smile. The smile about the sinister nature of
Speaker 2: someone smiling at you but with mal intent, and we
Speaker 2: all know the difference between the two. And it's the
Speaker 2: creepiest thing ever. If someone smiles when they're angry, and.
Speaker 1: I want to give this person credit. I don't have
Speaker 1: her name, but when we saw the movie poster for
Speaker 1: this movie, we knew we were going to see this
Speaker 1: because it's the young lady on all the movie art
Speaker 1: who has a very sinister smile on her face, demonic smile,
Speaker 1: and it is just wonderful. It's so good, it's so great.
Speaker 1: So this movie did gang busters. It made one hundred
Speaker 1: and six million dollars domestically at the box office, another
Speaker 1: one hundred and eleven million at the international box office.
Speaker 1: This is a whopping two hundred and seventeen point four
Speaker 1: million dollars.
Speaker 2: That's why there is already been a sequel. I love
Speaker 2: they knew they had a winner, And honestly, I think
Speaker 2: after you watch this, you're gonna want to race out
Speaker 2: and see Smile too, because it picks up right where
Speaker 2: this one leaves off, which is really cool. I love
Speaker 2: when horror movies do that. So this is really a
Speaker 2: fun one two punch. If you love this one, you
Speaker 2: were going to have a blast with the sequel.
Speaker 1: Okay, I don't want to get into the sequel, but
Speaker 1: the opening sequence of the sequel is so good. Yeah, yeah, sorry,
Speaker 1: I don't want to give too much away. I'm going
Speaker 1: ahead of myself. Sorry.
Speaker 2: Yes, but the cast, as you mentioned, so Ce Bacon,
Speaker 2: that is Kevin Bacon and Kiras Sedgwick's daughter, and she
Speaker 2: is so good in this film. She's so creepy. As
Speaker 2: you mentioned, Jesse t Usher is in this. Kyle Gellner,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: Him and you love everybody, and you know his face
Speaker 1: and you're go say, where I see him? Where did
Speaker 1: I see him? He is a great actor. He was
Speaker 1: in The Strange Darlings, which isn't too far from maybe
Speaker 1: being on a list as well. He's a hell of
Speaker 1: an actor.
Speaker 2: I feel like in so many of these movies, I
Speaker 2: know the faces, yes, I just don't necessarily know the names,
Speaker 2: because I think up until now horror movies just haven't
Speaker 2: gotten the accolades they deserve, and so maybe the people
Speaker 2: who unless you were already a star coming into it,
Speaker 2: you don't necessarily get known. Your face is known, but
Speaker 2: your name isn't known as much.
Speaker 1: But uh director, oh yeah, but I'll saying they elevate
Speaker 1: these movies with their performances. Know their name or not,
Speaker 1: like we always say, justin long when we see them.
Speaker 1: It's just like a warm blanket. Okay, we're gonna be okay,
Speaker 1: it's so true.
Speaker 2: All right. The director is Parker Finn on this. And
Speaker 2: the Rotten Tomato score actually a little lower than I
Speaker 2: would have thought, eighty percent, still really really good for
Speaker 2: Rotten Tomatoes. And the audience score is pretty much in
Speaker 2: line with the critics at seventy seven percent.
Speaker 1: All right. The critic consensus as well, here this is
Speaker 1: how I guess how do they come up with this?
Speaker 1: Are they just kind of aggregating they I.
Speaker 2: Don't know, but I always like it, and I always
Speaker 2: feel like it kind of nails it.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of a consensus here among the critics.
Speaker 1: It says deeply creepy visuals and a standout Socy Bacon
Speaker 1: further elevates smiles on settling exploration of trauma, adding up
Speaker 1: to the rare feature that satisfyingly expands on a short
Speaker 1: I didn't know about the short story it came from.
Speaker 2: Oh I didn't know that either, but so many of
Speaker 2: them do. Stephen King a lot of his short stories
Speaker 2: end up becoming phenomenal movies, so that makes sense. And
Speaker 2: then the audience consensus, you may need to pay close
Speaker 2: attention in order to keep up with the story. But
Speaker 2: fans of slow burning horror should leave smile with a grin.
Speaker 2: I don't think it was slow burning. I felt like
Speaker 2: it it picked up pretty quickly.
Speaker 1: I didn't think it was hard to keep up with either,
Speaker 1: but and.
Speaker 2: I was scared the whole time with each twist and turn.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I didn't find it difficult to keep up with.
Speaker 1: So I put this negative critic review at the top.
Speaker 1: I don't know why, but somebody said I did not
Speaker 1: have fun watching this, relying too much on jump scares
Speaker 1: and not enough payoff. Huh. I think there's so many
Speaker 1: scenes in this movie that don't involve jump scares but
Speaker 1: make your skin crawl. Not because of violence, but I
Speaker 1: mean email, the birthday party scene. Nobody died in that,
Speaker 1: but you were so uncomfortable the time the woman comes
Speaker 1: up to the window. There's no violence involved, but it's scary.
Speaker 2: I love the Yes, I mean that is so good.
Speaker 2: So wait, is this the same negative review? It's formally okay, okay,
Speaker 2: this is a good one, all right. It's formal technique
Speaker 2: transforms a film full of cliches into an average story
Speaker 2: that manages to make an impact at the right moments
Speaker 2: that seems a little harsh, though it's wow, you started
Speaker 2: off negative, You're gonna end positive. I'm hoping we'll see
Speaker 2: all right, smile. It is an intense horror film dealing
Speaker 2: with survivor's guilt that exceeds all expectations. By the film's end,
Speaker 2: I found my palm sweating, something I'd never experienced. I
Speaker 2: totally get that, But it's funny. I didn't really feel
Speaker 2: like the film was dealing with survivor's guilt.
Speaker 1: Okay, then let's do the next one for you here,
Speaker 1: the negative one soci began, gives what a film purporting
Speaker 1: to take trauma seriously deserves. But when the only solution
Speaker 1: to ridding oneself of specific trauma is to either kill
Speaker 1: yourself or someone else, just how seriously can we take
Speaker 1: it beyond it's overload of jump scares?
Speaker 2: Wait, I didn't think this was a serious movie about trauma.
Speaker 2: This is a horror film.
Speaker 1: Would people find meaning and storylines? And yes, it's fine,
Speaker 1: and people look for those things, but they seem to
Speaker 1: be looking for something serious. But then they don't also
Speaker 1: realize it's a horror movie. So we have to do
Speaker 1: a twist. It seemed like everything should have been literal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's fascinating to me when there's a movie because
Speaker 2: I'm actually reading these off for the first time. You
Speaker 2: put this together. I am so surprised because I thought
Speaker 2: this movie was such a gem. I mean, obviously we
Speaker 2: put it a number eight, so we loved this movie.
Speaker 2: It's interesting to hear criticism of it in something I
Speaker 2: would never have even consider another one. Though the ending
Speaker 2: may go against the rather spelled out message, the film
Speaker 2: has plenty of good characters, ideas, and best of all, scares.
Speaker 2: I just don't think there was enough love for this
Speaker 2: movie from the critics.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean they're looking for something else of meaning
Speaker 1: and examining trauma and the way we're supposed to do
Speaker 1: it and the way you deal with it is not
Speaker 1: by killing somebody or killing yourself. That's not how we
Speaker 1: do it. Yeah, we know, because it's a horror movie.
Speaker 1: I don't know it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I'm doing.
Speaker 1: People look for a little different meanings. I put a
Speaker 1: bunch of critic or excuse me, audience reviews in here
Speaker 1: for a reason because there were a lot and a
Speaker 1: lot of good win so I'm gonna blow through them.
Speaker 1: One here is negative, but I also found it funny.
Speaker 1: Not enough smiling, way too long between people smiling, creepy smiles.
Speaker 2: I could have gotten more smiles. The more they did it,
Speaker 2: the more I loved it.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but they're effective when it happens. Oh,
Speaker 1: it's great, all right. Smile is an incredibly creepy and
Speaker 1: overall unsettling horror film. It creates, or it certainly rather
Speaker 1: has a overall deeper meaning to the story of what
Speaker 1: happens when someone witnesses the truly horrifying trauma and how
Speaker 1: it sticks with you throughout your life and eats you
Speaker 1: up from the inside.
Speaker 2: Nope, I never ever considered anything other than something supernatural
Speaker 2: and scary.
Speaker 1: This is one you'll find funny. Simply says, stressful and boring?
Speaker 1: Can those two things exist? Are you ever sitting around
Speaker 1: stressed and bored?
Speaker 2: No? You can't be both. That's so fun you oxymoron.
Speaker 1: You're gonna love this one. Then. Smile presents a gripping
Speaker 1: psychological horror rooted in dread rather than jump scares. Yet
Speaker 1: it falters with a weak story foundation and underdeveloped character arcs.
Speaker 1: While the visuals, sound design and unique camera work, bill suspense,
Speaker 1: effectively repetitive effects, and a predictable ending slightly dull the impact.
Speaker 2: I'm so sorry that Juilliard grad didn't like Smile? What
Speaker 2: was that? Wow? Have you looked up in the dictionary?
Speaker 2: Takes yourself too serious? Wait? You just picked all neggetive?
Speaker 2: Was there any I don't like any good reviews with this. No.
Speaker 1: The concept of this movie is impossibly unique.
Speaker 2: Which is unique is never good if you if you
Speaker 2: were going to date somebody and someone said, well, she's unique,
Speaker 2: that's not a good review of.
Speaker 1: Something it is. No, this is this is, folks, what
Speaker 1: I'm doing with in the house. You don't wait to
Speaker 1: see the rest. It is impossibly unique, which in itself
Speaker 1: is a huge reason to be drawn in. If you're
Speaker 1: a fan of ghosts and haunting type movies, this will
Speaker 1: absolutely be right up your alley. Christ on sale. It
Speaker 1: was a compliment another here Smiles the first horror film
Speaker 1: to truly genuinely scare me.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it is scary. I guess it's funny because
Speaker 2: I do appreciate that somebody at least recognized that this
Speaker 2: is about ghosts and haunting. I just I think, I
Speaker 2: think that's great if you found a message about survivor's
Speaker 2: guilt or grief. But I really do think the whole
Speaker 2: point was that if she hadn't then been haunted herself,
Speaker 2: she probably would have gotten over her patients very disturbing experience. Again,
Speaker 2: we just I would never have gone there and thought
Speaker 2: that that was what the movie should have or was
Speaker 2: supposed to be about.
Speaker 1: So why is it on the list for you? Why
Speaker 1: is this one not just on the list it's in
Speaker 1: number eight.
Speaker 2: It is up there because it scared me in a
Speaker 2: way that I have not been scared in a while.
Speaker 2: With that creepy scare. It stays with you, that smile.
Speaker 2: When I closed my eyes at night, I could see
Speaker 2: it and it would scare me, like it's hard to
Speaker 2: get an image like that out of your head. And
Speaker 2: they just did such a good job of using it
Speaker 2: effectively where you really did feel like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: if someone looked at me, if I linger, or if
Speaker 2: I'm in their presence, I could then catch that demon
Speaker 2: or that demonic thing could be anyway. It really creeped
Speaker 2: me out. So yes, I loved it.
Speaker 1: It does I think to the creep factor it I mean,
Speaker 1: it's a hell of a scenario. The only way you
Speaker 1: can break this curse is if you got to kill
Speaker 1: somebody or you have to die and just that idea, right,
Speaker 1: like one of those impossible scenarios. What do you do?
Speaker 1: The performances in this are off the charts. Ve got
Speaker 1: cal Penn shows up again.
Speaker 2: He has been showing up in some horror movies.
Speaker 1: Another small but very significant role that he plays in
Speaker 1: this one. And I do love. Yes, there are some
Speaker 1: deaths and whatnot and some jump scares, but I love
Speaker 1: that this movie disturbs you without violence. I love that
Speaker 1: it does freak you out without anybody having to bleed
Speaker 1: or there are a few.
Speaker 2: People who do bleed though, and that's very freaky as well. Yes,
Speaker 2: I agree.
Speaker 1: Well, folks, stay with us here just a second. We'll
Speaker 1: tell you if this movie is for you, and we'll
Speaker 1: also tell you if it's not for you. And of
Speaker 1: course always the drum roll, Excited to see what food
Speaker 1: and drink pairings Robaka has come up with this time.
Speaker 2: Stay here, Welcome back to Amy and TJ, where we
Speaker 2: are talking about number eight on our Halloween horror hit list. Smile.
Speaker 2: This is the original twenty twenty two, and this movie
Speaker 2: stays with you, just a creepy, demonic smile that just
Speaker 2: ends up being the undoing of everyone who sees it.
Speaker 2: It's quite the movie, and it was well reviewed, and
Speaker 2: it did amazing amazing at the box office. Is now streaming,
Speaker 2: and if you like it, you can actually keep on
Speaker 2: watching Smile too, because we actually highly recommend the sequel,
Speaker 2: which doesn't always happen. So this is a great COMBA
Speaker 2: waiting for Smile three, though.
Speaker 1: I think they've okayed, I really I think they do.
Speaker 1: I do think a Smile three in the works.
Speaker 2: All right, So who is this for? I think we
Speaker 2: think this is for everybody, as long as if you
Speaker 2: don't want to get too scared by those images of
Speaker 2: the creepy smile, you can just cover your eyes for
Speaker 2: a little while.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is a movie. You don't necessarily want to
Speaker 1: run out and you're going to be grossed out. But
Speaker 1: every once in a while it's fun to want to
Speaker 1: squint or cover your face because something's scaring you just enough.
Speaker 1: This is a fun experience.
Speaker 2: You've seen me doing that all the time. Somehow I
Speaker 2: feel safer if my hand is in front of my face,
Speaker 2: even though I can see through my fingers. You just
Speaker 2: feel protected. But yes, this right, and you say this
Speaker 2: is for fans of it follows.
Speaker 1: Do you remember that horror movie? That horror movie. It's
Speaker 1: a cult favorite, but yeah, that kind of concept of
Speaker 1: passing something along to break a curse and yes, time
Speaker 1: ticking down all that. If you like that kind of concept.
Speaker 2: Wait, you just reminded me of one of my favorite
Speaker 2: horror movies with Denzel Washington and he witnesses an execution
Speaker 2: and the guy sings, time is on your side, fallen.
Speaker 2: That's the name of it. It's so good. But it's
Speaker 2: the same concept. The evil spirit jumps from person to
Speaker 2: person and oh my god, it's I'd never realized that,
Speaker 2: but yes, it reminds me of that. Who was it
Speaker 2: not for.
Speaker 1: Yeah, anybody who's kind of creeped out a little easily
Speaker 1: by ghosts and hauntings and spirits and not necessarily possession.
Speaker 1: I don't think this is.
Speaker 2: There's a little bit of possession.
Speaker 1: Though, with this matter of passing this thing along.
Speaker 2: I mean it's a possession. Actually it is possession. If
Speaker 2: this one creeps yet, you're forced to do things you
Speaker 2: wouldn't ordinarily do in this movie.
Speaker 1: It's just the one act, isn't it at the end. Yeah, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: we don't want to give too much away who it's
Speaker 1: not for if you need like a little comedic break,
Speaker 1: if you need just something to break up the tension.
Speaker 1: I don't remember a moment this, even cow Penn is
Speaker 1: not funny.
Speaker 2: No, no, yeah, that's a very good point. You might
Speaker 2: think that that would have been a moment, but it wasn't.
Speaker 2: This is a horror drama, thriller, it's not. There's no
Speaker 2: comedy in it. That's a really good point if you're
Speaker 2: looking for anything, it's not. It's fun in a scary way.
Speaker 2: Like if getting or being scared is fun to you,
Speaker 2: which it is to us, then that's how it's fun. Yes,
Speaker 2: but it's not necessarily a blast exactly. But man, it
Speaker 2: leaves you feeling something. I would not watch this alone,
Speaker 2: and I do think this could be a fun group setting.
Speaker 2: Certainly would want to be with my significant other for sure.
Speaker 1: Wow, okay, we can leave it blank. What is your
Speaker 1: food here?
Speaker 2: It is? I actually did a little thinking on this one.
Speaker 2: So you're watching smile, so we want to just make
Speaker 2: sure that we're all good, because you know, you're going
Speaker 2: to be playing with the person or the people are
Speaker 2: you're with smiling at them creepily, So you don't want
Speaker 2: anything staining your teeth or in your teeth. So no
Speaker 2: red wine completely out. I'd stick with white wine or champagne.
Speaker 2: Fine with beer two and then maybe a crue de
Speaker 2: tape platter with a ranch dip, because celery, carrots, all
Speaker 2: that are really good for keeping your teeth white and
Speaker 2: clean and all of that.
Speaker 1: I look this up.
Speaker 2: It's true. Dentist suggest you eat raw vegetables or raw fruit,
Speaker 2: but you get into the berries, they could stain your teeth,
Speaker 2: so stay away from those. A cheese plate is good,
Speaker 2: and maybe some grapes, and now your teeth are shiny
Speaker 2: and clean and white and ready to smile.
Speaker 1: I don't even know where to begin with you on
Speaker 1: this one. Let's just go back to that moose crunch
Speaker 1: popcorn or something, what was it?
Speaker 2: Moose crunch popcorn, and we're gonna have some at one
Speaker 2: point before Halloween.
Speaker 1: And I just went back and asked the vine, and
Speaker 1: I had to say it five times, like what the
Speaker 1: hell are you talking about? Yes, next movie almost belongs
Speaker 1: in our classics episode because it's a part of a
Speaker 1: huge horror franchise that I'm surprised a lot of people
Speaker 1: still aren't that familiar with.
Speaker 2: You know what, that is a very good tease, because
Speaker 2: I was brought into this frand tries after I started
Speaker 2: dating you, and I too cannot believe that I had
Speaker 2: to catch up and missed all of these amazing movies
Speaker 2: so that, yes, we could enjoy this latest rendition, which
Speaker 2: is going to be number seven on our list. So
Speaker 2: thanks for listening everyone. I made me Robock alongside TJ. Holmes.
Speaker 1: We'll talk to you soon.