SMILE To Hide the Pain | Smile (2022) RGP Review

I'm really glad I've finally gotten around to talking about this one. I'm away on vacation until the end of the month and I'll have my work cut out for me when I get back with a few really interesting horror movies out over the next little while.
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Rocklin Graves Productions is a labour of love for the world of horror. With a focus on reviewing horror films, this channel explores what makes the genre so impactful and important for so many people.

[@arktomorphos]

Got to give you credit. Your analysis is insightful and intelligent. It's not that "Bro, that was like awesome, but that suuucked" shit of so many movie "reviewers" on youtube. Beside that you're also witty and likeable. 👌Hope your channel takes off, you deserve more views.

[@RocklinGraves]

Thank you so much man I really appreciate you saying that. Means a lot

[@boogiedaddy3434]

Loved the marketing for this. The studio sent actors wearing Smile t-shirts out to big public /televised events (e.g., baseball games, etc.), and they would get into any camera shot they could and just stand there in the background, smiling creepily. It was absolute genius!

[@wrldgaming4684]

I think her not having a close relasonship and lack of character development makes it more disturbing and shows she really is alone. She is not able to have a close relasonship with anyone in her life and it did show. She was the main focus and the only character back story we get. He'd boyfriend left her as soon as she breaks down so and it just made me feel sorry for her.

[@jimpavlyuchenko9420]

I don't know whether to hate or love KZbin algorithm. On one hand it brought your video to my TV screen (I was busy cooking dinner), on the other hand I was shocked to see the view and follower numbers which should've been far far higher. The production quality is off the roof for a small channel and your videos are rich in content and actually contain your own takes and analyses instead of just rambling through the plot and calling it "ending explanation". From one horror flicks lover to another I really appreciate your work! What can we do to boost your channel aside from liking and subscribing? PS: an unsolicited advice, maybe do some Asian horror too. It's a road less travelled for the western audience. If you enjoy slow burners like Hereditary, you'll LOVE The Wailing (South Korea).

[@RocklinGraves]

I’d LOVE to look at some Asian horror. There are so many gems

[@quark6766]

@@RocklinGraves , watch Kairo, AKA Pulse.

[@itstrue6660]

I really appreciate that you go into detail about the soundtracks in horror movies, it's not something that gets noticed often. love your videos!

[@RocklinGraves]

Thank you so much!

[@InLisa_UTrust]

Just stumbled on to your channel and was so excited to see how many videos you have! God speed to your success 👏🏼🙌🏼 #bingeing

[@RocklinGraves]

Ah thank you so much! Really appreciate it

[@omgitsarjun]

Thank you providing analysis throughout and not just doing what so many other horror KZbinrs do which is 10 mins of recapping the ENTIRE PLOT and 2 mins of interpretation. Love your channel!

[@jennmoslek921]

That freaking scene where she's listening to the tape & they jump scare you with her mom got me. I actually jumped up from my couch & yelled "WTF!" Lol

[@AVSFAITHFUL25]

This was genuinely the scariest movie I watched in theaters upon rewatch and I honestly don’t think that. The ending was messed up but like what am I watching.

[@RocklinGraves]

Yeah I’ve found I have more issues with it on rewatch. Still great though

[@GrizzlyNickk]

❤❤😊

[@TheBeird]

Ah man, It Follows was really good. Only seen it once but I'm not forgetting it anytime soon. Smile looks a lot better than I thought it would. That soundtrack seems really unique

[@HeatherHolt]

Love It Follows. Except for the pool scene but everything else is very on point.

[@fancypants6089]

Smile was one of the best horror movies I’ve seen and I’ve seen them all lol.

[@meen0ru]

Thank you. I’ve been ragged on by my horror friends for not liking this one as much as everyone else. I finally feel validated. 😭

[@FaunoAtelie]

The movie is consistently bad, there's no shame in not liking poorly made media

[@JamesSmith-gc9kk]

I think that her terrible advice to patients sets her up for the end. She is saying what you’re experiencing isn’t real and can’t hurt you which is not how therapists should act. They should be nonjudgmental. My point being she is telling them their experiences aren’t that bad or real and in the end she wants others to believe what she is experiencing is real. This would cause others to think she is hallucinating or experiencing psychosis, which is her view of her patients in the beginning. They wanted someone to know what they were experiencing was very real and she is in the same position in the end of the movie. Great film though!

[@WatPatat]

My dude! Your videos are amazing. I’m currently bingeing your channel in between my busy life. Your takes are really good and I love how you analyse these movies. Thank you for giving me some great entertainment when I got some down time!

[@Adrianperales17]

Just stumbled upon your channel and havent stopped watching glad you made a video about SMILE

[@RocklinGraves]

Thank you!

[@mason7067]

Wow, definitely gotta get around to this one. My brother nearly lived the main characters trauma. Mom was oding and he didn't call anyone. Our other brother ended up calling 911 and saving her. At one point I came close in a way. Mom had overdosed and gone into a coma. None of us realized for about three days when she woke up. Her sleep was so erratic we all just assumed she'd been awake when we had been asleep or out of the house. It's good to see a movie tackle this kind of trauma. Makes it less isolating.

[@lordcactus2281]

Your channel and reviews have reignited my love for horror movies in a way nothing has ever done before, you clearly have so much passion in your work and it really shows, keep up the absolutely amazing work man!

[@robdurfee6861]

A KZbin review channel reignited your love for horror movies? Really? You must’ve been interested in them to begin with or why look for horror reviews on KZbin?

[@jermaineanderson5829]

Another great video Evan. Keep up the good work 👍.

[@RocklinGraves]

Thanks as always dude

[@souvenirsucces4450]

Very well put together review, i enjoyed hearing your take. This is one of my favorites of 2022. I will check out IT FOLLOWS

[@RocklinGraves]

Thanks for watching! I really hope you enjoy It Follows. One of my favourites from the 2010s

[@TheCaptahab]

Good insights and well put together. Keep up the good work. Thx.

[@RocklinGraves]

Thank you!

[@Gjf2393]

It's more like Carl was screaming about watching 20 minutes of Fox News 😂

[@SemicolonExpected]

I honestly hate when directors try to subvert expectation these days. A lot of it is motivated by trying to make it so audiences cant predict the ending rather than good storytelling. Like it can be done really well, but in this case and of course GoT its just done terribly

[@ABurgess]

“Molesting a drum with a sponge” Extended technique unlocked.

[@Ineedgames]

The monster being a metaphor for mental illness is genius imo. Much like the Babadook, you can't beat it you can only live with it.

[@andreachung8951]

I just stumbled on your youtube channel and holy cow i love your reviews. I agree with a lot of things you say. I look forward to see hoe kuch your channel grows and grows

[@RocklinGraves]

Thank you!

[@maishazi]

Wait is that one girl from Smile the girl from the Sleepover Club from my Childhood?? Looks so similar. Great review btw love the op of your vids

[@amikkomoon5273]

She is a terrible therapist but not as bad as her own therapist

[@skarmory93]

The trailer was awful. Made it look like that ridiculously bad Truth or Dare film. Imagine my shock when i watched Smile and it was genuinely great

[@ShanderVarianto]

I no longer watch any trailer for any movie. They all look generic trailer-y and most of the time unable to preview of the different style of the moviemaker

[@ShanderVarianto]

Love this movie and the sequel. About the constant threat and uneasiness made us feel the exhaustion in my opinion is intentionally for us to have a glimpse of someone in deep depression that can leads to tragic end

[@dtechie989]

Really enjoying your videos. Been bingeing a lot of them since stumbling onto your channel. One question was was the *Finn about. I thought I was going crazy seeing something flash until I slowed it down. lol

[@jasonaugustine3370]

She's with the A Train baby

[@wescals6849]

7:00 "Are you going to stab me with that broken piece of plate?"

[@matthewhines9787]

I'm thoroughly enjoying these videos and the nearly academically colloquium feeling of the exploration. However, despite him being about 15 yrs younger than me and not my type... I am finding this Evan dude more and more attractive with each video.

[@ouroborosgames3809]

I lucked out on this one. Watched 30 seconds of the first trailer went "fuck this looks generic" didnt think about it again until I ended up happening to see it. Great movie and really glad I didn't get heaps spoiled by the trailers

[@casperblack-v4s]

I thought she was going to kill herself somewhere no one was watching before the entity could kill her, thus ending the cycle. I really liked this movie.

[@randomvrperson4967]

The first add I saw for Smile was memorable in a much different way. It genuinely made me and a friend laugh. It was specifically the scene where the main character is in the car and the lady outside cranes her head like a giraffe. The CGI seemed so bad at the time, that we just had to laugh.

[@randomvrperson4967]

Looking at it again, still funny, but not as bad as I thought lol.

[@salazar556]

I was a bit concerned that Smile would end up being a flop. However, I was pleasantly surprised. One part that freaked the hell out of me was the car scene.

[@wonderlandzer0]

Honestly, the initial trailers made this movie so unbelievably cheesy a cheap that i didnt want to watch it when it came out. Cut to much later when my friends said it was actually pretty amazing and scary; when i told them my opinions based on the trailer they were confused and insisted we all watch the movie together. Turns out they never saw the trailers before and just chose to watch it on a whim, and cut to my surprise that the movie was actually super good! Im glad they convinced me to watch it otherwise i would have never seen it!

[@Yuuretsu]

It's a shame the movie didn't end with Rose pouring her heart out after burning the House down. The psychological aspect to the movie is strong and could have made for a fantastic movie on its own.

[@greggpoppabich9281]

Smile wuz kool but, I wantd more! Kinda how u I felt in "It Follows"....✌🏽🙂❤️

[@lizzyrank5405]

I liked the ending because a lot of horror moives are happy and yay they escape the horror. As much as some parts of theories was annoying and clichie the ending wasn't. I get why some don't like it but I do because not everyone gets to get away from turama and it does consume them. The Mc was already there and the entity pushed her further

[@sarahbell8886]

I liked this movie so much more when I stopped and thought about it as so much more than a creature feature.

[@JoeNotReal]

I loved this movie and I saw it with my mom and I still do like it but I hated the ending *SPOILERS* the monster at the end was to much for me and it really lost me and it brought down the whole movie for me I also was lost a couple times when the therapist isn’t real and stuff but I do really like it despite some issues with it ( I haven’t seen it follows but I plan to tonight)

[@RocklinGraves]

Enjoy It Follows! It’s a fantastic movie

[@fazormcghee7936]

​@@RocklinGravesit's crazy to me that you had more criticism for this movie than you did for the black phone

[@rellllzzz2473]

I think them not having much of a backstop is because it's told from the pov of Rose. She's basically in every scene and just like you personally don't need much backstop with people already in your life neither does she plus she was gradually being separated from everyone her loneliness made sense

[@Vicious2998]

Maybe I’m a little jaded with this cold take but I can’t stand movies anymore where all of the tension lies in no one believing the main character. I saw almost all of the hallucinations coming especially with the therapist. I liked a lot of things about this movie but it fell very flat for me with all of the tropes it used.

[@SmartWentCrazy.]

Your channel rocks! Seriously great production value, satisfying blend of commentary and recap, informative insights that belie a clear appreciation for cinema, a great ear for score, and perfect length of videos. Your jokes are funny too and just the right amount of humor here and there. Never be afraid to tell it exactly like you see it even if that goes against the grain and makes you feel like you’re being contrarian. Just say what you think. Being genuine is incredibly important for a content creator doing film analysis. I appreciated your Blumhouse Exorcist review for this reason. That was a seriously great analysis and a tough video to nail like you did. I liked how you gave a small disclaimer that you were going to focus a bit more on the positive aspects for that movie and thought you made some good points. And you don’t annoyingly say anywho and hoyever ten times per video like certain other horror channels I watch lol. I would love to see you analyze Infinity Pool! I love high concept psychological horror and think you would make a great video! Good luck in the future I’m excited to see you grow 🫡✌️

[@BPD308]

Have you done an It Follows review?

[@johnharris721]

Sense i'm coming late to your videos, did you see Barbarian and look forward to Longlegs?

[@prakhar3365]

I love your videos so much 😮

[@finalzanmato]

Imma be honest. I like Smile up until the last 15 or so minutes. We didn’t need the monster reveal. I think it cheapened the horror of the mother at the end. Also her getting GOT was a let down. They should have bit the bullet and went out Babadook style where she lives with her trauma

[@DURP_16]

14:43 never seen this movie before but seeing her mouth the words stfu is hilarious

[@iska788]

Pretty smart flick.

[@RocklinGraves]

Yeah it’s solid

[@camilla8129]

The movie is well produced but it really feels like it was written by someone who doesn't understand young audiences after they watched an Ari Aster movie. Starting from the fact that creepy smiles were scary in 2015

[@raidbugspray3291]

i definitely agree with your comparison to It Follows and i think for me and maybe others thats the biggest reason why this film falls flat. I do not see as much merit in the actual horror scenes as you do, (more power to you if you enjoy the film) and was expecting the character/psychological aspects to drive the movie, which was not successful.

[@Zanyotaku]

I found this movie... frustrating. Like you said how transparently bad the main character is at her job was really jarring to me right off the bat, having worked in healthcare and gone to therapy or perhaps even just googled a quick video of how you would talk to patients in crisis, for five minutes. Also I didn't really vibe with all the characters actually calling multiple people "crazy", "psycho", and "loony" for a movie that proports itself to be pushing FOR understanding of mental health, trauma and PTSD it stumbles into every stigmatizing stereotype that exists it felt like, right down to our main character writing off her patients... because they're struggling to communicate... something that famously happens to folks struggling with mental illness. The terrible relationship between the main character and her fiance really took me out of it as a final nail, I was hoping it would be character-driven but the characters seemed single-mindedly hellbent on just... being terrible to each other at the slightest excuse. Finally, I kinda found the ending to be a bit heavy handed and overly bleak. I couldn't take the reviews that said this movie wanted to "start a conversation" about mental health seriously in the slightest unfortunately, especially since it's conclusion to trauma comes off as "it's incurable, you'll traumatize everyone else around by acting "craazyyy", and dying alone is the way it's gotta end!" ....Hm. Maybe some folks found it relatable but... I sure didn't. However, thank you for your view, I just couldn't take this one seriously and a lot of reviews didn't give me any feelings as to why anyone else did beyond "haha spooky right?"

[@superbronycommander]

What’s the background music at 10:20 ?

[@jasonaugustine3370]

Does anyone mention that you open your videos like Alfred Hitchcock?

[@RocklinGraves]

Haha no but I definitely do!

[@SeeinHyrule]

I thought that the birthday party scene would be a triggering trauma for the child which was dark af, but also not the case The bs CG (edit: apparently not cg) stuff really killed the movie for me, especially the barbarian-esque naked lady monster at the end. Kind of killed any interest I have in a sequel

[@ahhfakemonsters]

Surprised by all the hate in the comments about the ending. The twist was great IMO and i thought the monster reveal was fun.

[@kennethbent5586]

I thought this was a review not a description

[@TheTessEffect]

I love this movie. I've seen it about 6 times at this point. 😅

[@johnnysilver5866]

The first 10 minutes of this movie would have been a PHENOMENAL short film by itself. Honestly wish it ended there, big horror fan but I think most of the genre is done poorly. I was presently surprised by Smile!

[@jarrodoakley6911]

I don’t think I’d use It Follows as an example for characters. I mean tell me something about Yara. Or Kelly besides she’s Jays sister. Or even Paul besides he wants Jay. They all seem to just live in each others lives rather than interact. They don’t really bring a lot to the table, and if any one of them died or left the group, I don’t think anyone would have strong feelings about it

[@RocklinGraves]

It’s not so much that they’re super fleshed out characters, but it’s more that I’ve always found their dynamic to be really engaging. It doesn’t feel forced or over explained, it just genuinely feels like a group of people who’ve known each other for a long time and are very comfortable around one enough. I find the relationships super believable, and I do genuinely care about all of them

[@jarrodoakley6911]

@@RocklinGraves to me they feel very much like a movie relationship. It’s better if you don’t question it. There isn’t anything in that shows an actual connection between them, they are just there because they are about the same age and the story wants them there. Thanks for the reply, I guess you can feel connected to something and it works for you. I just feel differently about the friends in It Follows to the point where it always bothered me a little about the movie. Probably have to agree to disagree. Love your videos

[@powerfulnightmare]

This is the first movie I could not finish watching. The staring, and repetitive movements just were a NO for me; I had not felt that uncomfortable since watching the anime Higurashi back in 2011. Ughh I might try again and just cover my face or something lol

[@patrickflynn95]

The monster at the end looks like my "sleep paralysis demon". Not a great time 😂

[@DaniellaGuillano-bt8lf]

I love this channel ❤️❤️❤️ the host is do calming

[@mma709]

I had trouble getting into this movie

[@osf5635]

Just something I’ve noticed in different horror movies, I always find that making a character say something evil or uncharacteristic or scary in their normal voice is far more frightening than a therapist having the demon voice, I feel like those kind of scenes are way less scary than something like the locker scene in It, where pennywise fakes being Beverly and tells Ben that she would never love him, and then completely takes the scare away by having her head catch on fire and talk in pennywise’s voice. Maybe just me though, this movie(and this video) are still great imo

[@RONALDDELPER]

the ariel shoots are the curse looking down

[@dreambluntrot8n]

im surprised this movie is well liked. i never thought about it again after watching it

[@Gaggleosquirrels00]

The monster at the end, and essential ruined the movie overall for me. I think it should've remained ambiguous

[@ernestopanza4194]

I fn love your channel brodie. U da best.

[@RocklinGraves]

Cheers! Really appreciate it

[@AK33M]

The movie was fine as is.

[@ryanbellegrave9777]

That little CNN zinger 😅

[@johnharris721]

Sounds like you are, like me, a film music buff.

[@nguyenquanghonghoa1643]

Change the title to Simle 2 and ai would agree. The frist one with it flaw is a good movie. But the 2nd,... hell no. I'm out

[@donalddavis7423]

If the narrator is too unreliable then we just stop trusting them and the entire story suffers.

[@springa1930]

I dont watch trailer or review before watching a movie. People will ruin it for you😂😂😂

[@hiddenjem0924]

I really enjoyed Smile, but I had a major issue with the ending. As a horror film, it was very impactful and disturbing, however... when you tie a metaphor into your horror monster, how you choose to end the film sends a message about that topic. And to have the protagonist confront her trauma in a very literal way and overcome it, only to have the trauma reappear and say it can never be overcome before leading the person to horrible commit suicide seems like a bleak and wildly irresponsible message to put out there. If the idea had been that isolation in order to not burden others exacerbates the difficulties in handling trauma and that ultimately lead to her failure instead of trusting others, it would still have been bleak but at least had a more constructive message. However, we aren’t given any indications that others could have helped (the last victim literally killing themselves in a therapy session), and the point is hammered home that the trauma seeks to spread itself by contact with others. All in all, it’s a really solid movie, but I think the writer/director needed to really stop and consider the implications of their own story.

[@marayac_617]

i actually haven’t seen it until last year because it looked lame

[@VirtualVirtue23]

3/10

[@Thenewbagman]

Another thing this film shares with It follows is that both are pretty bad,boring, unintentionally funnny movies.

[@12rouge]

Gave you a dislike because you didn't call out the vase for being in the therapy room.

[@OrphanCrippler1]

This movie was VERY corny imo. The entire premise is corny. The smile, the "entitys" purpose.

[@crystalshaw8744]

Entities

[@OrphanCrippler1]

@@crystalshaw8744 Entities is plural, you absolute genius. Entity's is correct, i hust left out the comma. Hope that helps.

[@meatpopsicle882]

Well said.

[@sapphiresquire2943]

New sub. Great videos.

[@sinnsage]

LOVED this movie, hated the ultimate ending. should have ended at the time it naturally ended. no need to make her actually succumb. ruined it. still great film though up to that point.