A group of local college students and Atlanta influencers were invited to an early screening of Smile at the AMC theater in Phipps Plaza on Sept. 28. The screening was hosted by rapper and media personality Young Joc, who welcomed the crowd in with humor in an interactive way.
“Any of y’all [have to use the restroom]?” Joc asked college students in the front row.
“Now why would you ask that?” a student responded.
“I’m just trying to warn y’all,” Joc said. “This movie is that scary. Some people couldn’t make it through when they saw it.”
The Paramount film has since been released and led the box office sales, checking in at $22 million for its opening weekend. The movie has also been promoted by including cast members at sporting events.
The #SmileMovie had actors infiltrate MLB games and hold creepy smiles the entire time as part of the film’s promo campaign. pic.twitter.com/jlFVg7C72s
— Pop Base (@PopBase) September 30, 2022
Smile is as creepy as its promos.
The film’s cinematic elements and musical score take the audience on a constant roller coaster of terror and suspense. The storyline centers around a psychiatrist, Rose Cotter, who counsels a client in a session gone wrong. The client began the session by explaining how she wasn’t crazy but was actually a Ph.D. candidate. The psychiatrist spends the remainder of the film trying to understand why the client meeting went the way it did, jumping through mental gymnastic hoops and giving outsiders the perception she was losing it herself. At the end of the film the doc has an epiphany about the childhood trauma underlying all of the nightmares and real-life terrors.
Cotter is played by Sosie Bacon, Kevin Bacon’s 30-year-old daughter.
While Smile had the fourth-largest opening for a horror film this year, behind Nope, Scream and Black Phone, it is without a doubt the scariest movie of 2022.
