What age is Smile appropriate for?

Smile is rated R and PopcornCheck recommends it for ages 17+, based on reading the actual screenplay. The film opens with Laura Weaver graphically taking her own life in front of Dr. Cotter during a psychiatric evaluation, and later shows a professor bludgeoning himself to death with a hammer and Jane Park pulling out and swallowing her own hair, all delivered alongside extreme language (the f-word is used 87 times).

Does Smile have swearing or bad language?

Smile has Extreme language. The f-word ('fuck'/'fucking') is used extremely often, approximately 87 times throughout the film.

Smile has Extreme violence. A professor bludgeons himself to death with a hammer while Laura watches, shown graphically.

Is Smile scary for children?

Smile has Extreme scary scenes. Laura describes the entity as wearing people's faces like masks with an unsettling smile, a disturbing image that recurs throughout the film.

Is Smile OK for Kids?

Name: Smile
Director: Parker Finn
Genre: Horror, Mystery
Released: 2022
Duration: 115 min
Cast: Sosie Bacon, Kyle Gallner, Jessie T. Usher, Robin Weigert, Caitlin Stasey

HorrorMystery

17+

R⭐ IMDb 6.5 / 102022 · 1h 55m

Parker Finn● Script verified

Where to Watch

United States

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Streaming data by JustWatch

What's In It

Based on the actual screenplay

🗡️Violence

Extreme▼

Moments in the script, mildest → most intense

Cartoon / Comedic

Action & Peril

Injuries & Death Shown

Graphic & Disturbing

A professor bludgeons himself to death with a hammer while Laura watches, shown graphically.
Laura Weaver dies by suicide through self-harm directly in front of Dr. Cotter during a psychiatric evaluation.
Security footage reveals Angela Powell's suicide, and the aftermath of Gabriel Muóz's suicide is discussed in detail during body identification.
Robert Talley is shown murdering an unknown woman, and Jane Park pulls out and swallows her own hair in a disturbing self-harm scene.
Rose breaks a glass and cuts herself at her nephew's birthday party, and Carl Renken becomes physically aggressive and has to be restrained.
Dr. Desai is attacked and killed by a possessed Rose, and Joel is killed by the entity in a fire sequence that implies his body afterward.
Deaths are frequently shown or strongly implied rather than off-screen, and the recurring method is self-inflicted violence tied to psychological trauma.

💬Language

Extreme▼

Moments in the script, mildest → most intense

Mild Words

(damn, hell)

Moderate

(ass, b**ch)

Strong

(sh*t)

Extreme

(f**k)

The f-word ('f**k'/'f**king') is used extremely often, approximately 87 times throughout the film.
'S**t' is used 31 times, along with 'da**/dammit' (5 times), 'a**' (4 times), and 'b**ch' (1 time).
'Hell' is used 3 times as well.
There is heavy, near-constant profanity throughout, well beyond occasional swearing.

👻Scary Scenes

Extreme▼

Moments in the script, mildest → most intense

Mildly Tense

Startling Moments

Genuinely Scary

Deeply Disturbing

Laura describes the entity as wearing people's faces like masks with an unsettling smile, a disturbing image that recurs throughout the film.
The entity manifests to multiple characters in distorted, grotesque forms, and there is a scary sequence where the home security system malfunctions and a door mysteriously opens at night.
Rose hears her deceased mother's voice calling to her in the house and is later confronted by a manifestation of her mother's suicide trauma, both deeply disturbing psychological horror beats.
A dead cat named Mustache appears startlingly at a birthday party, and the entity's known pattern of killing a new victim every 4-7 days adds constant dread.
The final sequence, where the entity fully manifests and possesses Rose amid distorted sounds and visuals, is overwhelming and intended to be deeply unsettling rather than played for cheap jump scares.
Resolution is ambiguous and unsettling: the entity appears defeated but has actually transferred to Joel, suggesting the horror continues rather than being cleanly resolved.

💕Romance

Moderate▼

Moments in the script, mildest → most intense

Crushes & Holding Hands

Kissing & Dating

Suggestive

Sexual Content

Joel reveals lingering romantic feelings for Rose and states that he is single.
Rose's relationship with her partner Trevor deteriorates, with references to their intimate partnership but nothing shown on screen.
Joel and Rose share a moment of emotional connection and kiss, with Joel choosing to stay by her side.
There is no explicit sexual content; romance is a minor subplot compared to the horror elements.

🍺Substances

Mild▼

Moments in the script, mildest → most intense

Mentioned in Passing

Shown Casually

Featured Prominently

Glorified or Abused

Sarah Marquet is mentioned as having a history of drug abuse and mania, discussed rather than shown.
Wine spritzers are casually referenced at a party.
There is a clinical discussion of the antipsychotic medication Risperdal being prescribed.
No substance use is glorified; references are tied to mental health treatment and backstory.

⚡Stimulation

Extreme▼

Moments in the script, mildest → most intense

Gently Engaging

Exciting

Intense

Overwhelming

Laura's psychiatric breakdown during her evaluation escalates rapidly into panic before her death, an intense and distressing sequence.
Rose's paranoid episodes and hallucinations increase in frequency and intensity as the film progresses, becoming overwhelming.
A chase sequence occurs after police issue an APB for Rose, adding sustained tension.
The climactic confrontation features the entity fully manifesting with distorted sounds and visuals, an overwhelming sensory sequence that may be too much for sensory-sensitive viewers.

Parents also checked

Halloween movies that aren't too scary

Smile — Heads Up for Parents

Despite being a horror film, parents should be aware that suicide is shown graphically and repeatedly on screen as the central mechanism of the plot — most notably Laura Weaver's self-harm death in front of Dr. Cotter during a clinical evaluation — which is more explicit and frequent than many parents may expect even from an R-rated horror movie.

About Smile

A psychiatrist named Rose witnesses a patient violently take her own life during an evaluation and soon becomes convinced she is being stalked by a shape-shifting entity that wears the faces of the dead. As she investigates a chain of over 20 prior victims, her grip on reality unravels, blurring the line between supernatural curse and inherited mental illness. This is a tense, disturbing psychological horror film built around graphic suicide imagery and escalating dread.

⚠️

Watch with your child

This film's graphic depictions of suicide (Laura Weaver's death in front of Dr. Cotter, the professor's hammer suicide) combined with extreme language (87 uses of the f-word) and disturbing psychological content mean any teen who watches should ideally do so with a parent present to discuss the themes of mental health, trauma, and the sensitive suicide imagery.

Family Takeaways from Smile

What it gets right

✓Dr. Desai's encouragement for Rose to seek professional help models a healthy, non-stigmatizing response to someone in psychological crisis.
✓Joel's steady loyalty to Rose, even when her experiences seem irrational to outsiders, models standing by someone in a mental health crisis rather than abandoning them.

Smile Cultural & Values Guide

Cultural & Values Guide

No cultural or religious themes detected for this film.

Community Notes

Mental health advocacy perspectives may raise concern about the film's repeated, graphic use of suicide as a horror device, given its stated themes of mental health stigma and generational trauma.

Cast:Sosie BaconKyle GallnerJessie T. UsherRobin WeigertCaitlin Stasey