Smile Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs

1. The Unnecessary Jump Scares

Though Smile is certainly far more pared-down and restrained than your average studio horror flick, especially with a premise this unhinged, there are still some indulgences to speak of.

And more often than not, it's Finn's use of jump scares.

Now as we all know, jump scares aren't inherently a bad thing: when they're deployed well they can truly unnerve the audience in a deeply visceral way.

Yet mainstream horror tends to cheaply substitute them for smart, considered shocks, and while Smile's jump scares are definitely well crafted, they do feel a bit much in a film that subverts viewer expectations in several other ways.

Beyond one admittedly very good jump scare, most of them can be seen coming a mile off, and as such they feel like a feat of compromise, like something the studio brass insisted upon to give the film a little more "oomph."

These issues aside, though, Smile gets a lot more right than you probably ever imagined it would. And so, here's where it soars...